Gerry was at first opposed to the idea of political parties, and cultivated enduring friendships on both sides of the political divide between Federalists and Democratic-Republicans, he was a member of a diplomatic delegation to France that was treated poorly in the XYZ Affair, in which Federalists held him responsible for a breakdown in negotiations. Gerry thereafter became a Democratic-Republican, running unsuccessfully for Governor of Massachusetts several times before winning the office in 1810, during his second term, the legislature approved new state senate districts that led to the coining of the word "gerrymander"; he lost the next election, although the state senate remained Democratic-Republican. Chosen by Madison as his vice presidential candidate in 1812, Gerry was elected, but died a year and a half into his term, he is the only signer of the Declaration of Independence who is buried in Washington, D.C.

Elbridge Gerry was born on July 17, 1744, in Marblehead, Massachusetts, his father, Thomas Gerry, was a merchant operating ships out of Marblehead, and his mother, Elizabeth (Greenleaf) Gerry, was the daughter of a successful Boston merchant.[3] Gerry's first name came from John Elbridge, one of his mother's ancestors.[4] Gerry's parents had eleven children in all, although only five survived to adulthood. Of these, Elbridge was the third,[5] he was first educated by private tutors, and entered Harvard College shortly before turning fourteen. After receiving a B.A. in 1762 and an M.A. in 1765, he entered his father's merchant business. By the 1770s the Gerrys numbered among the wealthiest Massachusetts merchants, with trading connections in Spain, the West Indies, and along the North American coast.[3][6] Gerry's father, who had emigrated from England in 1730, was active in local politics and had a leading role in the local militia.[7]

Gerry was from an early time a vocal opponent of Parliamentary efforts to tax the colonies after the French and Indian War ended in 1763; in 1770 he sat on a Marblehead committee that sought to enforce importation bans on taxed British goods. He frequently communicated with other Massachusetts opponents of British policy, including Samuel Adams, John Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, and others.[3]

In May 1772 he won election to the Great and General Court of the Province of Massachusetts Bay (its legislative assembly). There he worked closely with Samuel Adams to advance colonial opposition to Parliamentary colonial policies, he was responsible for establishing Marblehead's committee of correspondence, one of the first to be set up after that of Boston.[8] However, an incident of mob action prompted him to resign from the committee the next year. Gerry and other prominent Marbleheaders had established a hospital for performing smallpox inoculations on Cat Island; because the means of transmission of the disease were not known at the time, fears amongst the local population led to protests which escalated into violence that wrecked the facilities and threatened the proprietors' other properties.[9]

Gerry reentered politics after the Boston Port Act closed that city's port in 1774, and Marblehead became a port to which relief supplies from other colonies could be delivered, as one of the town's leading merchants and Patriots, Gerry played a major role in ensuring the storage and delivery of supplies from Marblehead to Boston, interrupting those activities only to care for his dying father. He was elected as a representative to the First Continental Congress in September 1774, but refused, still grieving the loss of his father.[10]

Gerry was elected to the provincial assembly, which reconstituted itself as the Massachusetts Provincial Congress after Governor Thomas Gage dissolved the body in October 1774.[11] He was assigned to its committee of safety, responsible for assuring that the province's limited supplies of weapons and gunpowder remained out of British Army hands, his actions were partly responsible for the storage of weapons and ammunition in Concord; these stores were the target of the British raiding expedition that sparked the start of the American Revolutionary War with the Battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775.[12] (Gerry was staying at an inn at Menotomy, now Arlington, when the British marched through on the night of April 18.)[13] During the Siege of Boston that followed, Gerry continued to take a leading role in supplying the nascent Continental Army, something he would continue to do as the war progressed,[14] he leveraged business contacts in France and Spain to acquire not just munitions, but supplies of all types, and was involved in the transfer of financial subsidies from Spain to Congress. He sent ships to ports all along the American coast, and dabbled in financing privateering operations.[15]

Unlike some merchants, there is no evidence that Gerry profiteered from this activity (he spoke out against it, and in favor of price controls), although his war-related merchant activities notably increased the family's wealth,[16] his gains were tempered to some extent by the precipitous decline in the value of paper currencies, which he held in large quantities and speculated in.[17]

Gerry served in the Second Continental Congress from February 1776 to 1780, when matters of the ongoing war occupied the body's attention, he was influential in convincing a number of delegates to support passage of the United States Declaration of Independence in the debates held during the summer of 1776; John Adams wrote of him, "If every Man here was a Gerry, the Liberties of America would be safe against the Gates of Earth and Hell."[18] He was implicated as a member of the so-called "Conway Cabal", a group of Congressmen and military officers who were dissatisfied with the performance of General George Washington during the 1777 military campaign. However, Gerry took Pennsylvania leader Thomas Mifflin, one of Washington's critics, to task early in the episode, and specifically denied knowledge of any sort of conspiracy against Washington in February 1778.[19]

Gerry's political philosophy was one of limited central government, and he regularly advocated for the maintenance of civilian control of the military, he held these positions fairly consistently throughout his political career (wavering principally on the need for stronger central government in the wake of the 1786–87 Shays's Rebellion) and was well known for his personal integrity.[20] In later years he was against the idea of political parties, remaining somewhat distant from the developing Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties until later in his career, it was not until 1800 that he would formally associate with the Democratic-Republicans in opposition to what he saw as attempts by the Federalists to centralize too much power in the national government.[21] In 1780 he resigned from the Continental Congress over the issue, and refused offers from the state legislature to return to the Congress,[22] he also refused appointment to the state senate, claiming he would be more effective in the state's lower chamber, and also refused appointment as a county judge, comparing the offer by Governor John Hancock to those made by royally appointed governors to benefit their political allies.[23] He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1781.[24]

Gerry was convinced to rejoin the Confederation Congress in 1783, when the state legislature agreed to support his call for needed reforms,[25] he served in that body until September 1785, during which time it met in New York City. The following year he married Ann Thompson, the daughter of a wealthy New York merchant who was twenty years his junior; his best man was his good friend James Monroe.[18][26] The couple had ten children between 1787 and 1801, straining Ann's health.[18]

The war made Gerry sufficiently wealthy that when it ended he sold off his merchant interests, and began investing in land; in 1787 he purchased the Cambridge, Massachusetts estate of the last royal lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, Thomas Oliver, which had been confiscated by the state. This 100-acre (40 ha) property, known as Elmwood, became the family home for the rest of Gerry's life.[27] He continued to own property in Marblehead, and bought a number of properties in other Massachusetts communities, he also owned shares in the Ohio Company, prompting some political opponents to characterize him as an owner of vast tracts of western lands.[28]

Gerry played a major role in the U.S. Constitutional Convention, held in Philadelphia during the summer of 1787.[29] In its deliberations he consistently advocated for a strong delineation between state and federal government powers, with state legislatures shaping the membership of federal government positions. Gerry's opposition to popular election of representatives was rooted in part by the events of Shays's Rebellion, a populist uprising in western Massachusetts in the year preceding the convention, despite this position, he also sought to maintain individual liberties by providing checks on government power that might abuse or limit those freedoms.[30] He supported the idea that the Senate composition should not be determined by population; the view that it should instead be composed of equal numbers of members for each state prevailed in the Connecticut Compromise. The compromise was adopted on a narrow vote in which the Massachusetts delegation was divided, Gerry and Caleb Strong voting in favor.[31] Gerry further proposed that senators of a state, rather than casting a single vote on behalf of the state, instead vote as individuals.[32] Gerry was also vocal in opposing the Three-Fifths Compromise, which counted slaves as 3/5 of a person for the purposes of apportionment in the House of Representatives and gave southern states a decided advantage.[33]

Gerry's preference for a more highly centralized government throughout most of the Convention was not motivated by a desire for great social changes, but was intended rather to restrain such popular excesses as were evidenced in Shays's Rebellion. ... [H]e defended popular rights when the people appeared to be threatened by some powerful interest groups, and he called for restraints on popular influence when the people seemed to be gaining the upper hand too much.

Because of his fear of demagoguery and belief the people of the United States could be easily misled, Gerry also advocated indirect elections, although he was unsuccessful in obtaining them for the lower house of Congress, Gerry did obtain such indirect elections for the U.S. Senate, whose members were to be elected by the state legislatures. Gerry also advanced numerous proposals for indirect elections of the President of the United States, most of them involving limiting the right to vote to the state governors and electors.[35]

Gerry was also unhappy about the lack of expression of any sort of individual liberties in the proposed constitution, and generally opposed proposals that strengthened the central government, he was one of only three delegates who voted against the proposed constitution in the convention (the others were George Mason and Edmund Randolph), citing a concern about the convention's lack of authority to enact such major changes to the nation's system of government, and to the constitution's lack of "federal features".[36]

During the ratification debates that took place in the states following the convention, Gerry continued his opposition, publishing a widely circulated letter documenting his objections to the proposed constitution;[37] in this document he cited the lack of a Bill of Rights as his primary objection, but also expressed qualified approval of the constitution, indicating that he would accept it with some amendment.[38] Strong pro-Constitution forces attacked him in the press, comparing him unfavorably to the Shaysites. Henry Jackson was particularly vicious: "[Gerry has] done more injury to this country by that infamous Letter than he will be able to make atonement in his whole life",[37] and Oliver Ellsworth, a convention delegate from Connecticut, charged him with deliberately courting the Shays faction.[39] One consequence of the furor over his letter was that he was not selected as a delegate to the Massachusetts ratifying convention,[40] although he was later invited to attend by the convention's leadership, the convention leadership was dominated by Federalists, and Gerry was not given any formal opportunity to speak; he left the convention after a shouting match with convention chair Francis Dana.[41] The state ratified the constitution by a vote of 187 to 168,[42] the debate had the result of estranging Gerry from a number of previously friendly politicians, including chairman Dana and Rufus King.[43]

Anti-Federalist forces nominated Gerry for governor in 1788, but he was predictably defeated by the popular incumbent John Hancock.[44] Following ratification, Gerry recanted his opposition to the Constitution, noting that a number of state ratifying conventions had called for amendments that he supported,[45] he was nominated by friends (over his own opposition to the idea) for a seat in the inaugural House of Representatives, where he then served two terms.[46]

In June 1789 Gerry proposed that Congress consider all of the proposed constitutional amendments that various state ratifying conventions had called for (notably those of Rhode Island and North Carolina, which had at the time still not ratified the constitution).[47] In the debate that followed, he led opposition to some of the proposals, arguing that they did not go far enough in ensuring individual liberties, he successfully lobbied for inclusion of freedom of assembly in the First Amendment, and was a leading architect of the Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure.[48] He sought unsuccessfully to insert the word "expressly" into the Tenth Amendment, which might have more significantly limited the federal government's power,[49] he was successful in efforts to severely limit the federal government's ability to control state militias.[50] In tandem, with this protection, he had once argued against the idea of the federal government controlling a large standing army, comparing it – most memorably and mischievously – to a standing penis: "An excellent assurance of domestic tranquility, but a dangerous temptation to foreign adventure."[51]

Gerry vigorously supported Alexander Hamilton's reports on public credit, including the assumption at full value of state debts, and supported Hamilton's new Bank of the United States, positions consistent with earlier calls he had made for economic centralization.[52] Although he speculated in depreciated Continental bills of credit (the IOUs at issue), there is no evidence he participated in large-scale speculation that attended the debate when it took place in 1790, and he became a major investor in the new bank,[53] he used the floor of the House to speak out against aristocratic and monarchical tendencies he saw as threats to republican ideals, and generally opposed laws and their provisions that he perceived as limiting individual and state liberties. He opposed any attempt to give officers of the executive significant powers, specifically opposing establishment of the Treasury Department because its head might gain more power than the President,[54] he opposed measures that strengthened the Presidency (such as the ability to fire cabinet officers), seeking instead to give the legislature more power over appointments.[55]

Gerry did not stand for re-election in 1792, returning home to raise his children and care for his sickly wife,[56] he agreed to serve as a presidential elector for John Adams in the 1796 election.[57] During Adams' term in office, Gerry maintained good relations with both Adams and Vice President Thomas Jefferson, hoping that the divided executive might lead to less friction, his hopes were not realized: the split between Federalists (Adams) and Democratic-Republicans (Jefferson) widened.[58]

President Adams appointed Gerry to be a member of a special diplomatic commission sent to Republican France in 1797.[59] Tensions had risen between the two nations after the 1796 ratification of the Jay Treaty, made between the US and Great Britain, it was seen by French leaders as signs of an Anglo-American alliance, and France had consequently stepped up seizures of American ships.[60] Adams chose Gerry, over his cabinet's opposition (on political grounds that Gerry was insufficiently Federalist), because of their long-standing relationship; Adams described Gerry as one of the "two most impartial men in America" (Adams himself being the other).[59]

Gerry joined co-commissioners Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and John Marshall in France in October 1797 and met briefly with Foreign Minister Talleyrand,[61] some days after that meeting, the delegation was approached by three French agents (at first identified as "X", "Y", and "Z" in published papers, leading the controversy to be called the "XYZ Affair") who demanded substantial bribes from the commissioners before negotiations could continue.[62] The commissioners refused, and sought unsuccessfully to engage Talleyrand in formal negotiations.[63] Believing Gerry to be the most approachable of the commissioners, Talleyrand successively froze first Pinckney and then Marshall out of the informal negotiations, and they left France in April 1798.[64] Gerry, who sought to leave with them, stayed behind because Talleyrand threatened war if he left.[65] Gerry refused to make any significant negotiations afterward and left Paris in August.[66] By then dispatches describing the commission's reception had been published in the United States, raising calls for war,[67] the undeclared naval Quasi-War (1798–1800) followed.[68] Federalists, notably Secretary of State Timothy Pickering, accused Gerry of supporting the French and abetting the breakdown of the talks, while Adams and Republicans such as Thomas Jefferson supported him,[69] the negative press damaged Gerry's reputation, and he was burned in effigy by protestors in front of his home. He was only later vindicated, when his correspondence with Talleyrand was published;[58] in response to the Federalist attacks on him, and because of his perception that the Federalist-led military buildup threatened republican values, Gerry formally joined the Democratic-Republican Party in early 1800, standing for election as Governor of Massachusetts.[70]

For four years Gerry unsuccessfully sought the governorship of Massachusetts, his opponent in these races, Caleb Strong, was a popular moderate Federalist, whose party dominated the state's politics despite a national shift toward the Republicans.[71] In 1803 Republicans in the state were divided, and Gerry only had regional support of the party, he decided not to run in 1804, returning to semi-retirement[72] and to deal with a personal financial crisis. His brother Samuel Russell had mismanaged his own business affairs, and Gerry had propped him up by guaranteeing a loan that was due, the matter ultimately ruined Gerry's finances for his remaining years.[73]

Republican James Sullivan won the governor's seat from Strong in 1807, but his successor was unable to hold the seat in the 1809 election, which went to Federalist Christopher Gore.[74] Gerry stood for election again in 1810 against Gore, and won a narrow victory. Republicans cast Gore as an ostentatious British-loving Tory who wanted to restore the monarchy (his parents had remained Loyal during the Revolution), and Gerry as a patriotic American, while Federalists described Gerry as a "French partizan" and Gore as an honest man devoted to ridding the government of foreign influence.[75] A temporary lessening in the threat of war with Britain aided Gerry,[76] the two battled again in 1811, with Gerry once again victorious in a highly acrimonious campaign.[77][78]

The word gerrymander (originally written Gerry-mander) was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette newspaper on March 26, 1812.[79] Appearing with the term, and helping spread and sustain its popularity, was this political cartoon, which depicts a state senate district in Essex County as a strange animal with claws, wings and a dragon-type head, satirizing the district's odd shape.

Gerry's first year as governor was less controversial than his second, because the Federalists controlled the state senate, he preached moderation in the political discourse, noting that it was important that the nation present a unified front in its dealings with foreign powers.[80] In his second term, with full Republican control of the legislature, he became notably more partisan, purging much of the state government of Federalist appointees, the legislature also enacted "reforms" of the court system that resulted in an increase in the number of judicial appointments, which Gerry filled with Republican partisans. Infighting within the party and a shortage of qualified candidates, however, played against Gerry, and the Federalists scored points by complaining vocally about the partisan nature of the reforms.[81]

Other legislation passed during Gerry's second year included a bill broadening the membership of Harvard's Board of Overseers to diversify its religious membership, and another that liberalized religious taxes, the Harvard bill had significant political slant because the recent split between orthodox Congregationalists and Unitarians also divided the state to some extent along party lines, and Federalist Unitarians had recently gained control over the Harvard board.[82]

In 1812 the state adopted new constitutionally mandated electoral district boundaries, the Republican-controlled legislature had created district boundaries designed to enhance their party's control over state and national offices, leading to some oddly shaped legislative districts.[83] Although Gerry was unhappy about the highly partisan districting (according to his son-in-law, he thought it "highly disagreeable"), he signed the legislation, the shape of one of the state senate districts in Essex County was compared to a salamander by a local Federalist newspaper in a political cartoon, calling it a "Gerry-mander".[84] Ever since, the creation of such districts has been called gerrymandering.[83] Gerry also engaged in partisan investigations of potential libel against him by elements of the Federalist press, further damaging his popularity with moderates, the redistricting controversy, along with the libel investigation and the impending War of 1812, contributed to Gerry's defeat in 1812 (once again at the hands of Caleb Strong, whom the Federalists had brought out of retirement).[85][86] The gerrymandering of the state senate was a notable success in the 1812 election: the body was thoroughly dominated by Republicans, even though the house and the governor's seat went to Federalists by substantial margins.[79]

Gerry's financial difficulties prompted him to ask President James Madison for a federal position after his loss in the 1812 election (which was held early in the year),[86] he was chosen by the Democratic-Republican party congress to be Madison's vice presidential running mate in the 1812 presidential election, although the nomination was first offered to John Langdon. He was viewed as a relatively safe choice who would attract Northern votes but not pose a threat to James Monroe, who was thought likely to succeed Madison. Madison easily won reelection, and Gerry took the oath of office at Elmwood in March 1813,[87] at that time the office of vice president was largely a sinecure; Gerry's duties included advancing the administration's agenda in Congress and dispensing patronage positions in New England.[88] Gerry's actions in support of the War of 1812 had a partisan edge: he expressed concerns over a possible Federalist seizure of Fort Adams (as Boston's Fort Independence was then known) as a prelude to Anglo-Federalist cooperation, and sought the arrest of printers of Federalist newspapers.[89]

On November 23, 1814, he fell seriously ill while visiting Joseph Nourse of the Treasury Department,[90] and died not long after returning to his home in the Seven Buildings.[91] He is buried in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington, D.C.,[92] with a memorial by John Frazee.[93] He is the only signer of the Declaration buried in the nation's capital,[94] the estate he left his wife and children was rich in land and poor in cash; he had managed to repay his brother's debts with his pay as vice president.[91] Aged 68 at the start of his Vice Presidency, he would be the oldest person to become VP until Charles Curtis in 1929.

Gerry is generally remembered for the use of his name in the word gerrymander, for his refusal to sign the United States Constitution, and for his role in the XYZ Affair, his path through the politics of the age has been difficult to characterize; early biographers, including his son-in-law James T. Austin and Samuel Eliot Morison, struggled to explain his apparent changes in position. Biographer George Athan Billias posits that Gerry was a consistent advocate and practitioner of republicanism as it was originally envisioned,[95] and that his role in the Constitutional Convention had a significant impact on the document it eventually produced.[96]

Gerry had ten children, of which seven survived into adulthood: Gerry's son, James Thompson Gerry, commanded the USS Albany, a United States Navy war sloop that went down with all hands in 1854.[97]

James Thompson Gerry (1797–1854), who left West Point upon his father's death and was Commander of the war-sloop USS Albany (1846); the sloop disappeared with all hands 28 or 29 September 1854 near the West Indies.[100]

Gerry's grandson Elbridge Thomas Gerry became a distinguished lawyer and philanthropist in New York, his great-grandson, Peter G. Gerry (1879–1957), was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives and a United States Senator from Rhode Island.[101]

The upstate New York town of Elbridge is believed to have been named in his honor, as is the western New York town of Gerry, in Chautauqua County.[104][105] The town of Phillipston, Massachusetts was originally incorporated in 1786 under the name Gerry in his honor, but was changed to its present name after the town submitted a petition in 1812, citing Democratic-Republican support for the War of 1812.[106]

Gerry's Landing Road in Cambridge, Massachusetts is located near the Eliot Bridge not far from Elmwood, during the 19th century, the area was known as Gerry's Landing (formerly known as Sir Richard's Landing), and was used by a Gerry relative for a short time as a landing and storehouse.[107][108] The supposed house of his birth, the Elbridge Gerry House (it is uncertain whether he was born in the house currently standing on the site or an earlier structure) stands in Marblehead, and that town's Elbridge Gerry School is named in his honor.[109][110]

Hart, Albert Bushnell (ed) (1927). Commonwealth History of Massachusetts. New York: The States History Company. OCLC1543273.CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) (five volume history of Massachusetts until the early 20th century)

1.
Vice President of the United States
–
The executive power of both the vice president and the president is granted under Article Two, Section One of the Constitution. The vice president is elected, together with the president. The Office of the Vice President of the United States assists, as the president of the United States Senate, the vice president votes only when it is necessary to break a tie. Additionally, pursuant to the Twelfth Amendment, the president presides over the joint session of Congress when it convenes to count the vote of the Electoral College. Currently, the president is usually seen as an integral part of a presidents administration. The Constitution does not expressly assign the office to any one branch, causing a dispute among scholars whether it belongs to the executive branch, the legislative branch, or both. The modern view of the president as a member of the executive branch is due in part to the assignment of executive duties to the vice president by either the president or Congress. Mike Pence of Indiana is the 48th and current vice president and he assumed office on January 20,2017. The formation of the office of vice president resulted directly from the compromise reached at the Philadelphia Convention which created the Electoral College, the delegates at Philadelphia agreed that each state would receive a number of presidential electors equal to the sum of that states allocation of Representatives and Senators. The delegates assumed that electors would typically choose to favor any candidate from their state over candidates from other states, under a plurality election process, this would tend to result in electing candidates solely from the largest states. Consequently, the delegates agreed that presidents must be elected by a majority of the number of electors. To guard against such stratagems, the Philadelphia delegates specified that the first runner-up presidential candidate would become vice president, the process for selecting the vice president was later modified in the Twelfth Amendment. Each elector still receives two votes, but now one of those votes is for president, while the other is for vice president. The requirement that one of those votes be cast for a candidate not from the electors own state remains in effect. S, other statutorily granted roles include membership of both the National Security Council and the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. As President of the Senate, the president has two primary duties, to cast a vote in the event of a Senate deadlock and to preside over. For example, in the first half of 2001, the Senators were divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats and Dick Cheneys tie-breaking vote gave the Republicans the Senate majority, as President of the Senate, the vice president oversees procedural matters and may cast a tie-breaking vote. As President of the Senate, John Adams cast 29 tie-breaking votes that was surpassed by John C. Calhoun with 31. Adamss votes protected the presidents sole authority over the removal of appointees, influenced the location of the national capital, on at least one occasion Adams persuaded senators to vote against legislation he opposed, and he frequently addressed the Senate on procedural and policy matters

2.
James Madison
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James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and Founding Father who served as the fourth President of the United States from 1809 to 1817. He is hailed as the Father of the Constitution for his role in drafting and promoting the United States Constitution. Madison inherited his plantation Montpelier in Virginia and therewith owned hundreds of slaves during his lifetime and he served as both a member of the Virginia House of Delegates and as a member of the Continental Congress prior to the Constitutional Convention. After the Convention, he one of the leaders in the movement to ratify the Constitution. His collaboration with Alexander Hamilton and John Jay produced The Federalist Papers, Madisons political views changed throughout his life. During deliberations on the Constitution, he favored a national government. In 1789, Madison became a leader in the new House of Representatives and he is noted for drafting the first ten amendments to the Constitution, and thus is known also as the Father of the Bill of Rights. He worked closely with President George Washington to organize the new federal government, breaking with Hamilton and the Federalist Party in 1791, he and Thomas Jefferson organized the Democratic-Republican Party. In response to the Alien and Sedition Acts, Jefferson and Madison drafted the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions, as Jeffersons Secretary of State, Madison supervised the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled the nations size. Madison succeeded Jefferson as president in 1809, was re-elected in 1813, after the failure of diplomatic protests and a trade embargo against the United Kingdom, he led the U. S. into the War of 1812. The war was a morass, as the United States had neither a strong army nor financial system. As a result, Madison afterward supported a national government and military, as well as the national bank. Madison has been ranked in the aggregate by historians as the ninth most successful president, James Madison, Jr. was born on March 16,1751, at Belle Grove Plantation near Port Conway, Virginia, to father James Madison, Sr. and mother Nelly Conway Madison. He grew up as the oldest of twelve children, Nelly and James Sr. had seven more boys and four girls. Three of James Jr. s brothers died as infants, including one who was stillborn, in the summer of 1775, his sister Elizabeth and his brother Reuben died from a dysentery epidemic that swept through Orange County because of contaminated water. His father, James Madison, Sr. was a planter who grew up on a plantation, then called Mount Pleasant. He later acquired more property and slaves, and with 5,000 acres, he became the largest landowner, James Jr. s mother, Nelly Conway Madison, was born at Port Conway, the daughter of a prominent planter and tobacco merchant. In these years, the colonies were becoming a slave society, in which slave labor powered the economy

3.
George Clinton (vice president)
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George Clinton was an American soldier and statesman, considered one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He and John C. Calhoun are the people to have served as US Vice President under two different presidents. Clinton was born in Little Britain, Province of New York and his political interests were inspired by his father, who was a farmer, surveyor, and land speculator, and served as a member of the New York colonial assembly. George Clinton was the brother of General James Clinton and the uncle of New Yorks future governor, George was tutored by a local Scottish clergyman. During the French and Indian War he first served on the privateer Defiance operating in the Caribbean, before enlisting in the provincial militia and he and his brother James were instrumental in capturing a French vessel. His fathers survey of the New York frontier so impressed the governor that he was offered a position as sheriff of New York City. After the war, he read law in New York City under the attorney William Smith and he returned home and began his legal practice in 1764. He became district attorney the following year and he was a member of the New York Provincial Assembly for Ulster County from 1768 to 1776, aligned with the anti-British Livingston faction. His brother James was a member of the Provincial Convention that assembled in New York City on April 20,1775, James Clinton and Christopher Tappan, lifetime residents of the area, were sent to scout appropriate locations. In December 1775 the New York Provincial Congress commissioned him brigadier general in the militia tasked with defending the Highlands of the Hudson River from British attack. To this end he built two forts and stretched a giant chain across the river to keep the British forces in New York City from sailing northward, on March 25,1777, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Continental Army. In June 1777, he was elected at the same time Governor and he formally resigned the Lieutenant Governors office and took the oath of office as Governor on July 30. He was re-elected five times, remaining in office until June 1795, although he had been elected governor, he retained his commission in the Continental Army and commanded forces at Fort Clinton and Fort Montgomery on October 6,1777. He remained in the Continental Army until it was disbanded on November 3,1783 and he was known for his hatred of Tories and used the seizure and sale of Tory estates to help keep taxes down. A supporter and friend of George Washington, he supplied food to the troops at Valley Forge, rode with Washington to the first inauguration, in 1783, Clinton became an original member of the New York Society of the Cincinnati and served as its president from 1794 to 1795. In 1783, at Dobbs Ferry, Clinton and Washington negotiated with General Sir Guy Carleton for the evacuation of the British troops from their posts in the United States. In 1787–88, Clinton publicly opposed adoption of the new United States Constitution, twentieth-century historian Herbert Storing identifies Clinton as Cato, the pseudonymous author of the Anti-Federalist essays which appeared in New York newspapers during the ratification debates. However, the authorship of the essays is disputed, Clinton withdrew his objections after the Bill of Rights was added

4.
Daniel D. Tompkins
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Daniel D. Tompkins was an American politician. He was the fourth Governor of New York, and the sixth Vice President of the United States, a jurist by background, he was notable as one of the most enterprising governors in the War of 1812. To help organize the militia, he often invested his own capital when the legislature would not approve the necessary funds. After the war, he failed to recover these massive loans, despite endless litigation, which took a toll on his health, Tompkins was frequently absent from Senate meetings and died soon after leaving office. Tompkins was baptized Daniel Tompkins, but added the middle initial D. while a student at Columbia College to distinguish himself from another Daniel Tompkins there, there is controversy as to what the middle initial stood for, some have suggested Decius. The generally accepted conclusion is that it did not stand for anything, Daniel D. Tompkins was born in Scarsdale, Westchester County, New York, at his home, the estate of Fox Meadow. He was the son of Sarah Ann and Jonathan Griffin Tompkins and he graduated from Columbia College in New York City in 1795. Tompkins studied law and in 1797 was admitted to the bar and his brother, Caleb Tompkins, was a United States Representative from New York from 1817 to 1821. On February 20,1798, Daniel Tompkins, a 23-year-old lawyer of the City married 16-year-old Hannah Minthorne, at the time of the marriage, her father Mangle Minthorne was Assistant Alderman on the Common Council, and young Tompkins had designs on a political career. Hannah was ill in the year before her husband became vice president and their children Hannah and Minthorne were named after their mother, and Hannah and Minthorne streets in Staten Island are named for them. Hannah survived her husband by four years, she died on February 18,1829, in Tompkinsville. She and her husband are buried in the Minthorne family vault at St. Marks-in-the-Bouwerie, in lower Manhattan. On April 30,1807, he defeated the incumbent Governor Morgan Lewis – Tompkins received 35,074 votes, Lewis 30,989 – and he was reelected in 1810, defeating Jonas Platt – Tompkins 43,094 votes, Jonas Platt 36,484. In 1813 he defeated Stephen Van Rensselaer – Tompkins 43,324 votes, Van Rensselaer 39,718 – and in 1816, he beat Rufus King – Tompkins 45,412 votes, King 38,647. Tompkins was supported by DeWitt Clinton in his first run for office, during the War of 1812, Tompkins proved to be one of the most effective war governors. He played an important role in reorganizing the militia and promoted the formation of a standing state military force based on select conscription. Tompkins was also elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1814, in 1815 Tompkins established a settlement along the eastern shore of Staten Island that came to be called Tompkinsville. He built a dock along the waterfront in the neighborhood in 1817, in 1816 he purchased much of the land later known as Tompkinsville from the Church of St. Andrew, but his financial troubles later led the church to foreclose

5.
Governor of Massachusetts
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The Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the head of the executive branch of Massachusetts state government and serves as commander-in-chief of the states military forces. The current governor is Charlie Baker, the Governor of Massachusetts is the chief executive of the Commonwealth, and is supported by a number of subordinate officers. He, like most other officers, senators, and representatives, was originally elected annually. In 1918 this was changed to a term, and since 1966 the office of governor has carried a four-year term. The Governor of Massachusetts does not receive a mansion, other official residence, instead, he resides in his own private residence. The title His Excellency is a throwback to the appointed governors of the Province of Massachusetts Bay. The first governor to use the title was Richard Coote, 1st Earl of Bellomont, in 1699, since he was an Earl, the title was retained until 1742, when an order from King George II forbade its further use. However, the framers of the state constitution revived it because they found it fitting to dignify the governor with this title, the governor also serves as commander-in-chief of the Commonwealths armed forces. According to the constitution, whenever the chair of the governor is vacant. The first time came into use was five years after the constitutions adoption in 1785. Most recently, Jane Swift became acting governor upon the resignation of Paul Cellucci, under this system, the lieutenant governor retains his or her position and title as lieutenant governor and becomes acting governor, not governor. The lieutenant governor, when acting as governor, is referred to as the lieutenant governor, the Massachusetts Constitution does not use the term acting governor. When the constitution was first adopted, the Governors Council was charged with acting as governor in the event that both the governorship and lieutenant governorship were vacant. This occurred in 1799 when Governor Increase Sumner died in office on June 7,1799, acting Governor Gill never received a lieutenant and died on May 20,1800, between that years election and the inauguration of Governor-elect Caleb Strong. The Governors Council served as the executive for ten days, the councils chair, the lieutenant governor does not succeed but only discharges powers and duties as acting governor. The governor has a 10-person cabinet, each of whom oversees a portion of the government under direct administration, see Government of Massachusetts for a complete listing. The tradition of the ceremonial door originated when departing Governor Benjamin Butler kicked open the front door, incoming governors usually choose at least one past governors portrait to hang in their office. The governor-elect is then escorted by the sergeant-at-arms to the House Chamber and sworn in by the president before a joint session of the House

6.
William Gray (Massachusetts)
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William Gray was a Massachusetts merchant and politician. Prior to the War of 1812, William Gray had the largest private fleet in the United States with 60 square-rigged vessels, Gray first served as a state senator, before becoming the ninth Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts, serving from 1810 to 1812. He married Elizabeth Chipman in 1782, Elizabeth was a pioneer in philanthropy, volunteering a significant portion of her time to helping the poorest citizens of Boston. In 1820, he was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society He owned Grays Wharf in Charlestown, in Boston he lived on Summer Street, in the mansion previously occupied by Governor Sullivan. Elizabeth and Williams son, Francis Calley Gray, was also a politician, William Gray, of Salem, merchant, a biographical sketch

7.
Christopher Gore
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Christopher Gore was a prominent Massachusetts lawyer, Federalist politician, and U. S. diplomat. Gore entered politics in 1788, serving briefly in the Massachusetts legislature before being appointed U. S. District Attorney for Massachusetts and he was then appointed by President George Washington to a diplomatic commission dealing with maritime claims in Great Britain. He returned to Massachusetts in 1804 and reentered politics, running unsuccessfully for governor several times before winning in 1809. He served one term, losing to Democratic-Republican Elbridge Gerry in 1810 and he was appointed to the US Senate by Governor Caleb Strong in 1813, where he led opposition to the War of 1812. Gore invested his fortune in a variety of businesses, including important infrastructure projects such as the Middlesex Canal and he was a major investor in the early textile industry, funding the Boston Manufacturing Company and the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, whose business established the city of Lowell, Massachusetts. Gore was involved in a variety of causes, and was a major benefactor of Harvard College. His palatial mansion in Waltham, Massachusetts, now known as Gore Place, is one of the finest extant examples of Federalist architecture, and has been declared a National Historic Landmark. Christopher Gore was born in Boston on September 21,1758, one of children of Frances and John Gore. He was the youngest of their three sons to survive to adulthood and he attended Boston Latin School, and entered Harvard College at the young age of thirteen. While at Harvard Gore participated in a club, and formed significant lifelong friendships with Rufus King. Gore graduated in 1776, and promptly enlisted in the Continental artillery regiment of his brother-in-law Thomas Crafts, the Gore family was divided by the war, Gores father was a Loyalist who left Boston when the British Army evacuated the city in March 1776. Gore was consequently called upon to support his mother and three sisters, who remained in Boston, in 1779, Gore successfully petitioned the state for the remaining familys share of his fathers seized assets. After his military service Gore studied law with John Lowell, and was admitted to the bar in 1778 after a comparatively brief tutelage, Gores law practice flourished, in part because many Loyalist lawyers had fled Massachusetts. Gores clients included Loyalists seeking to recover some of their assets and his briefs were generally well-reasoned, and he was seen as a successful trial lawyer. Gore grew his fortune by investing carefully in revolutionary currency and bonds, the securities he purchased were paper that had been given to Continental Army soldiers in lieu of pay, which they often sold at a steep discount. One batch of securities he purchased, for instance, cost him about $3,700 but had a value of $25,000. In 1785 he married Rebecca Amory Payne, daughter of a merchant, maritime insurer. The couple were known for their social graces and became prominent members of Boston society, in 1786 Gore became concerned about a rise in anti-lawyer sentiment in Massachusetts

8.
Caleb Strong
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Caleb Strong was a Massachusetts lawyer and politician who served as the sixth and tenth Governor of Massachusetts between 1800 and 1807, and again from 1812 until 1816. A leading member of the Massachusetts Federalist Party, his political success delayed the decline of the Federalists in Massachusetts, a successful Northampton lawyer prior to 1774, Strong was politically active in the rebel cause during the American Revolutionary War. He played a role in the development of the United States Constitution at the 1788 Philadelphia Convention. He also played a role in the passage of the Judiciary Act of 1789. Although he sought to retire from politics after losing the 1807 governors race and he refused United States Army requests that state militia be placed under army command, and in 1814 sought to engage Nova Scotia Governor John Coape Sherbrooke in peace talks. The state and federal governments weak defense of Massachusetts northern frontier during Strongs tenure contributed to the drive for Maines statehood. Caleb Strong was born on January 9,1745, in Northampton and he received his early education from Rev. Samuel Moody, and entered Harvard College in 1760, graduating four years later with high honors. He was shortly thereafter afflicted with smallpox, which blinded him. He studied law with Joseph Hawley, was admitted to the bar in 1772, Hawley was also a political mentor, shaping Strongs views on relations between the colonies and Great Britain. Strong and Hawley were both elected to the Massachusetts Provincial Congress in 1774, when the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, Strong was unable to serve in the military because of his damaged sight, but he was otherwise active in the Patriot cause. He served on the Northampton Committee of Safety and in local offices. He was a delegate to the 1779 Massachusetts Constitutional Convention, and was elected to the committee drafted the state constitution. He then served on the first governors council and in the senate from 1780 to 1789. Strongs legal practice thrived during the war years, and was one of the most successful in Hampshire County. He became a judge of the Court of Common Pleas in 1775, and was appointed county attorney of Hampshire County the following year, on more than one occasion he was offered a seat on the states supreme court, but rejected the position on account of its inadequate salary. Strong was described by a contemporary as meticulously detailed in his preparation of legal paperwork, in 1781 Strong was one of the lawyers who worked on a series of legal cases surrounding Quock Walker, a former slave seeking to claim his freedom. One of the cases, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Nathaniel Jennison, Strong was elected as a delegate to the Philadelphia Convention that drafted the U. S. A committed Federalist, Strong opposed the idea of the Electoral College as a means of electing the president, although he initially opposed proposals that the number of senators should be equal for all states, he eventually changed his mind, enabling passage of the Connecticut Compromise

9.
United States House of Representatives
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The United States House of Representatives is the lower chamber of the United States Congress which, along with the Senate, composes the legislature of the United States. The composition and powers of the House are established by Article One of the United States Constitution, since its inception in 1789, all representatives are elected popularly. The total number of voting representatives is fixed by law at 435, the House is charged with the passage of federal legislation, known as bills, which, after concurrence by the Senate, are sent to the President for consideration. The presiding officer is the Speaker of the House, who is elected by the members thereof and is traditionally the leader of the controlling party. He or she and other leaders are chosen by the Democratic Caucus or the Republican Conferences. The House meets in the wing of the United States Capitol. Under the Articles of Confederation, the Congress of the Confederation was a body in which each state was equally represented. All states except Rhode Island agreed to send delegates, the issue of how to structure Congress was one of the most divisive among the founders during the Convention. The House is referred to as the house, with the Senate being the upper house. Both houses approval is necessary for the passage of legislation, the Virginia Plan drew the support of delegates from large states such as Virginia, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania, as it called for representation based on population. The smaller states, however, favored the New Jersey Plan, the Constitution was ratified by the requisite number of states in 1788, but its implementation was set for March 4,1789. The House began work on April 1,1789, when it achieved a quorum for the first time, during the first half of the 19th century, the House was frequently in conflict with the Senate over regionally divisive issues, including slavery. The North was much more populous than the South, and therefore dominated the House of Representatives, However, the North held no such advantage in the Senate, where the equal representation of states prevailed. Regional conflict was most pronounced over the issue of slavery, One example of a provision repeatedly supported by the House but blocked by the Senate was the Wilmot Proviso, which sought to ban slavery in the land gained during the Mexican–American War. Conflict over slavery and other issues persisted until the Civil War, the war culminated in the Souths defeat and in the abolition of slavery. Because all southern senators except Andrew Johnson resigned their seats at the beginning of the war, the years of Reconstruction that followed witnessed large majorities for the Republican Party, which many Americans associated with the Unions victory in the Civil War and the ending of slavery. The Reconstruction period ended in about 1877, the ensuing era, the Democratic and the Republican Party held majorities in the House at various times. The late 19th and early 20th centuries also saw an increase in the power of the Speaker of the House

10.
Massachusetts
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It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the states of Connecticut and Rhode Island to the south, New Hampshire and Vermont to the north, and New York to the west. The state is named for the Massachusett tribe, which inhabited the area. The capital of Massachusetts and the most populous city in New England is Boston, over 80% of Massachusetts population lives in the Greater Boston metropolitan area, a region influential upon American history, academia, and industry. Originally dependent on agriculture, fishing and trade, Massachusetts was transformed into a manufacturing center during the Industrial Revolution, during the 20th century, Massachusetts economy shifted from manufacturing to services. Modern Massachusetts is a leader in biotechnology, engineering, higher education, finance. Plymouth was the site of the first colony in New England, founded in 1620 by the Pilgrims, in 1692, the town of Salem and surrounding areas experienced one of Americas most infamous cases of mass hysteria, the Salem witch trials. In 1777, General Henry Knox founded the Springfield Armory, which during the Industrial Revolution catalyzed numerous important technological advances, in 1786, Shays Rebellion, a populist revolt led by disaffected American Revolutionary War veterans, influenced the United States Constitutional Convention. In the 18th century, the Protestant First Great Awakening, which swept the Atlantic World, in the late 18th century, Boston became known as the Cradle of Liberty for the agitation there that led to the American Revolution. The entire Commonwealth of Massachusetts has played a commercial and cultural role in the history of the United States. Before the American Civil War, Massachusetts was a center for the abolitionist, temperance, in the late 19th century, the sports of basketball and volleyball were invented in the western Massachusetts cities of Springfield and Holyoke, respectively. Many prominent American political dynasties have hailed from the state, including the Adams, both Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also in Cambridge, have been ranked among the most highly regarded academic institutions in the world. Massachusetts public school students place among the top nations in the world in academic performance, the official name of the state is the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While this designation is part of the official name, it has no practical implications. Massachusetts has the position and powers within the United States as other states. Massachusetts was originally inhabited by tribes of the Algonquian language family such as the Wampanoag, Narragansett, Nipmuc, Pocomtuc, Mahican, and Massachusett. While cultivation of crops like squash and corn supplemented their diets, villages consisted of lodges called wigwams as well as longhouses, and tribes were led by male or female elders known as sachems. Between 1617 and 1619, smallpox killed approximately 90% of the Massachusetts Bay Native Americans, the first English settlers in Massachusetts, the Pilgrims, arrived via the Mayflower at Plymouth in 1620, and developed friendly relations with the native Wampanoag people. This was the second successful permanent English colony in the part of North America that later became the United States, the event known as the First Thanksgiving was celebrated by the Pilgrims after their first harvest in the New World which lasted for three days

11.
Massachusetts's 3rd congressional district
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Massachusettss 3rd congressional district is located in northeastern and central Massachusetts. The district is represented by Democrat Niki Tsongas, in Essex County, Precincts 2 through 7 and Precinct 9 in Andover, Haverhill, Lawrence, and Methuen. In Worcester County, Ashburnham, Berlin, Bolton, Clinton, Fitchburg, Gardner, Harvard, Lancaster, Lunenburg, Westminster, in Bristol County, Attleboro, Fall River, North Attleborough, Rehoboth, Seekonk, Somerset, Swansea. In Middlesex County, Ashland, Holliston, Hopkinton, Marlborough, in Norfolk County, Franklin, Medway, Plainville, Wrentham. In Worcester County, Auburn, Boylston, Clinton, Holden, Northborough, Paxton, Princeton, Rutland, Shrewsbury, Southborough, West Boylston, Westborough, the Historical Atlas of Political Parties in the United States Congress. The Historical Atlas of United States Congressional Districts, Congressional Biographical Directory of the United States 1774–present National atlas congressional maps 2004 election results, via CNN. com 2006 election results, via CNN. com

12.
Shearjashub Bourne
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Shearjashub Bourne was an American lawyer, jurist, and politician from Massachusetts who served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and United States House of Representatives. Bourne was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts on June 14,1746 and he graduated from Harvard University in 1764, studied law and became an attorney in Barnstable. He served in office including justice of the peace. From 1782 to 1785 and 1788 to 1790 he served in the Massachusetts House of Representatives and he was also a delegate to the Massachusetts convention which ratified the U. S. Constitution. Bourne represented Massachusetts in the United States House of Representatives from March 4,1791 to March 3,1795 and he later served as Chief Justice of the Suffolk County, Massachusetts Court of Common Pleas. He died in Boston on March 11,1806, letter from Shearjashub Bourne To George Washington United States Congress. Biographical Directory of the United States Congress

13.
Marblehead, Massachusetts
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Marblehead is a coastal New England town in Essex County, Massachusetts. Its population was 19,808 at the 2010 census and it is home to the Marblehead Neck Wildlife Sanctuary, Crocker Park, the Marblehead Lighthouse, Fort Sewall, Little Harbor and Devereux Beach. Archibald Willards famous painting The Spirit of 76 currently resides in Abbot Hall and it is also the origin of Marine Corps Aviation. A center of recreational boating, it is a sailing, kayaking and fishing destination. Several yacht clubs were established here in the late 19th century, Marbleheads first European settler was Joseph Doliber in 1629, who set up on the shore near what is now the end of Bradlee Road. Three years earlier, Isaac Allerton, a Pilgrim from the Mayflower, had arrived in the area and established a village at mid-Marblehead Harbor on the town side. This area was set off and incorporated separately in 1649, originally called Massebequash after the river which ran between it and Salem, the land was inhabited by the Naumkeag tribe of the Pawtucket confederation under the overall sachem Nanepashemet. But epidemics in 1615–1619 and 1633, believed to be smallpox, on September 16,1684, heirs of Nanepashemet sold their 3,700 acres, the deed is preserved today at Abbot Hall in the city. At times called Marvell Head, Marble Harbour and Foy, the town would be named Marblehead by settlers who mistook its granite ledges for marble and it began as a fishing village with narrow, crooked streets, and developed inland from the harbor. The shoreline smelled of drying fish, typically cod and these were exported abroad and to Salem. The town peaked economically just prior to the Revolution, as locally financed privateering vessels sought bounty from large European ships, much early architecture survives from the era, including the Jeremiah Lee Mansion. A large percentage of residents became involved early in the Revolutionary War, the first vessel commissioned for the navy, Hannah, was equipped with cannons, rope, provision —and a crew from Marblehead. With their nautical backgrounds, soldiers from Marblehead under General John Glover were instrumental in the escape of the Continental Army after the Battle of Long Island, Marblehead men ferried George Washington across the Delaware River for his attack on Trenton. Many who set out for war, however, did not return, the community lost a substantial portion of its population and economy, although it was still the tenth-largest inhabited location in the United States at the first census, in 1790. When George Washington visited the town during his tour of 1789, he knew the sailors of Marblehead well. He observed that the town had the appearance of antiquity, at the beginning of the 19th century, wealthier citizens wanted a new bank to finance vessels, and to serve the town’s fishermen and merchants. On March 17,1831, with a capital of $100,000, the name was changed to National Grand Bank on October 3,1864. After the Revolution, fishing continued as a major industry, the towns fishermen had 98 vessels putting to sea in 1837, where they often harvested fish off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland

14.
Province of Massachusetts Bay
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The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a crown colony in British North America and, from 1776, one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7,1691, by William and Mary, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland. The charter took effect on May 14,1692, and included the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the Plymouth Colony, the Province of Maine, Marthas Vineyard, Nantucket, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. The modern Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the successor, Maine has been a separate U. S. state since 1820. The name Massachusetts comes from the Massachusett, an Algonquian tribe, the name has been translated as at the great hill, at the place of large hills, or at the range of hills, with reference to the Blue Hills, and in particular, Great Blue Hill. Colonial settlement of the shores of Massachusetts Bay began in 1620 with the founding of the Plymouth Colony, over the next ten years there was a major migration of Puritans to the area, leading to the founding of a number of new colonies in New England. By the 1680s the number of colonies had stabilized at five, in addition to Massachusetts Bay and Plymouth, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts Bay was the most populous and economically significant, housing a sizable merchant fleet. The colonies at times struggled against the Indian population, which had suffered a decline in population prior to the arrival of the first permanent settlers. In the 1630s the Pequot tribe was destroyed, and King Philips War in the 1670s resulted in the expulsion, pacification. The latter war was costly to the colonists of New England. Massachusetts and Plymouth were both somewhat politically independent from England in their days, but this situation changed after the restoration of Charles II to the English throne in 1660. Charles sought closer oversight of the colonies, and to introduce and enforce economic control over their activities, the Navigation Acts passed in the 1660s were widely disliked in Massachusetts, where merchants often found themselves trapped and at odds with the rules. These issues and others led to the revocation of the first Massachusetts Charter in 1684, when James was deposed in the 1688 Glorious Revolution, Massachusetts political leaders conspired against Andros, arresting him and other English authorities in April 1689. This led to the collapse of the Dominion, as the other colonies then quickly reasserted their old forms of government, the Plymouth colony had never had a royal charter, so its governance had always been on a somewhat precarious footing. Massachusetts, however, was placed into constitutional anarchy by the uprising, provincial agents traveled to London where Increase Mather, representing the old colony leaders, petitioned new rulers William and Mary to restore the old colonial charter. When King William learned that this result in a return to the predominantly entrenched religious rule. Instead, the Lords of Trade decided to solve two problems at once by combining the two colonies, accordingly, on October 7,1691, they issued a charter for the Province of Massachusetts Bay, and appointed Sir William Phips its governor. Although the effect of change has been subject to debate among historians

15.
British America
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English America, and later British America, were the English, and later British, territories in North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Guyana from 1607 to 1783. After that, British North America was used to describe the remainder of Britains continental North American possessions, the term British North America was first used informally in 1783, but it was uncommon before the Report on the Affairs of British North America, called the Durham Report. British America gained large amounts of new territory following the Treaty of Paris which ended Britains involvement in the Seven Years War, at the start of the American War of Independence in 1775, the British Empire included 20 colonies north and east of New Spain. East and West Florida were ceded to Spain in the Treaty of Paris which ended the American Revolution, all but one of the remaining colonies of British North America apart from the British West Indies united together from 1867 to 1873 forming the Dominion of Canada. The first such permanent settlement was founded at Jamestown by the Virginia Company whose investors expected to reap rewards from their speculative investments, Virginia Native Americans had established settlements long before the English settlers arrived, and there were an estimated 14,000 natives in the region. Native American political leadership sought to resettle the English colonizers from Jamestown to another location, other colonizers, both English and German, did join the Powhatans. The first colonizers were welcomed by the Indians with dancing, feasting, there were twenty British colonies in North America in 1775

16.
Washington, D.C.
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Washington, D. C. formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D. C. is the capital of the United States. The signing of the Residence Act on July 16,1790, Constitution provided for a federal district under the exclusive jurisdiction of the Congress and the District is therefore not a part of any state. The states of Maryland and Virginia each donated land to form the federal district, named in honor of President George Washington, the City of Washington was founded in 1791 to serve as the new national capital. In 1846, Congress returned the land ceded by Virginia, in 1871. Washington had an population of 681,170 as of July 2016. Commuters from the surrounding Maryland and Virginia suburbs raise the population to more than one million during the workweek. The Washington metropolitan area, of which the District is a part, has a population of over 6 million, the centers of all three branches of the federal government of the United States are in the District, including the Congress, President, and Supreme Court. Washington is home to national monuments and museums, which are primarily situated on or around the National Mall. The city hosts 176 foreign embassies as well as the headquarters of international organizations, trade unions, non-profit organizations, lobbying groups. A locally elected mayor and a 13‑member council have governed the District since 1973, However, the Congress maintains supreme authority over the city and may overturn local laws. D. C. residents elect a non-voting, at-large congressional delegate to the House of Representatives, the District receives three electoral votes in presidential elections as permitted by the Twenty-third Amendment to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1961. Various tribes of the Algonquian-speaking Piscataway people inhabited the lands around the Potomac River when Europeans first visited the area in the early 17th century, One group known as the Nacotchtank maintained settlements around the Anacostia River within the present-day District of Columbia. Conflicts with European colonists and neighboring tribes forced the relocation of the Piscataway people, some of whom established a new settlement in 1699 near Point of Rocks, Maryland. 43, published January 23,1788, James Madison argued that the new government would need authority over a national capital to provide for its own maintenance. Five years earlier, a band of unpaid soldiers besieged Congress while its members were meeting in Philadelphia, known as the Pennsylvania Mutiny of 1783, the event emphasized the need for the national government not to rely on any state for its own security. However, the Constitution does not specify a location for the capital, on July 9,1790, Congress passed the Residence Act, which approved the creation of a national capital on the Potomac River. The exact location was to be selected by President George Washington, formed from land donated by the states of Maryland and Virginia, the initial shape of the federal district was a square measuring 10 miles on each side, totaling 100 square miles. Two pre-existing settlements were included in the territory, the port of Georgetown, Maryland, founded in 1751, many of the stones are still standing

17.
Congressional Cemetery
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The Congressional Cemetery or Washington Parish Burial Ground is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E Street, SE, in Washington, D. C. on the west bank of the Anacostia River. It is the only American cemetery of national memory founded before the Civil War, over 65,000 individuals are buried or memorialized at the cemetery, including many who helped form the nation and the city of Washington in the early 19th century. Though the cemetery is owned, the U. S. government owns 806 burial plots administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Congress, located about a mile and a half to the northwest, has influenced the history of the cemetery. The cemetery still sells plots, and is a burial ground. From the Washington Metro, the cemetery lies three blocks east of the Potomac Avenue station and two south of the Stadium-Armory station. Many members of the U. S. Congress who died while Congress was in session are interred at Congressional Cemetery, other burials include early landowners and speculators, the builders and architects of early Washington, Native American diplomats, Washington mayors, and Civil War veterans. Nineteenth-century Washington, D. C. families unaffiliated with the government also have graves. The cemetery was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on June 23,1969, by 1817 sites were set aside for government legislators and officials, this includes cenotaphs for many legislators buried elsewhere. The cenotaphs, designed by Benjamin Latrobe, each have a square block with recessed panels set on a wider plinth. From 1823 to 1876 the U. S. Congress funded the expansion, enhancement, and maintenance of the cemetery, but it never became a Federal institution. Appropriations funded a gravel road from the Capitol to the cemetery, paving within the cemetery, the vault, fencing, and the gatehouse, as well as funerals for congressmen. The grid survives to day and was extended as the cemetery expanded. Starting in the late 1840s, the cemetery was influenced by the rural cemetery movement in which the graves were placed in a setting with extensive landscaping. To implement this new vision, the cemetery needed to expand, between 1849 and 1869 the cemetery grew in area to 35.75 acres. The original cemetery was located on block 1115 on E Street between 18th and 19th Streets Southeast in 1808, in 1849, it doubled in size by acquiring the block to its south,1116. In 1853, it expanded to the east on blocks 1130,1148 and 1149 between F and G Streets Southeast, in 1853-53, the cemetery expanded to the west by acquiring block 1104, between 17th Street and 18th Streets Southeast. In 1858, the cemetery acquired block 1105 and Reservation 13, in 1859, it added blocks 1105 and 1123

18.
Democratic-Republican Party
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The new party controlled the presidency and Congress, as well as most states, from 1801 to 1825, during the First Party System. It began in 1791 as one faction in Congress, and included many politicians who had opposed to the new constitution. They called themselves Republicans after their ideology Republicanism and they distrusted the Federalist commitment to republicanism. The party splintered in 1824 into the Jacksonian movement and the short-lived National Republican Party, the term Democratic-Republican is used especially by modern political scientists for the first Republican Party. It is also known as the Jeffersonian Republicans, historians typically use the title Republican Party. An Anti-Administration faction met secretly in the capital to oppose Hamiltons financial programs. Jefferson denounced the programs as leading to monarchy and subversive of republicanism, Jefferson needed to have a nationwide party to challenge the Federalists, which Hamilton was building up with allies in major cities. Foreign affairs took a role in 1794–95 as the Republicans vigorously opposed the Jay Treaty with Britain. Republicans saw France as more democratic after its revolution, while Britain represented the hated monarchy, the party denounced many of Hamiltons measures as unconstitutional, especially the national bank. The party was strongest in the South and weakest in the Northeast and it demanded states rights as expressed by the Principles of 1798 articulated in the Kentucky and Virginia Resolutions that would allow states to nullify a federal law. Above all, the party stood for the primacy of the yeoman farmers, Republicans were deeply committed to the principles of republicanism, which they feared were threatened by the supposed monarchical tendencies of the Hamiltonian Federalists. The party came to power in 1801 with the election of Jefferson in the 1800 presidential election, the Federalists—too elitist to appeal to most people—faded away, and totally collapsed after 1815. The Republicans dominated the First Party System, despite internal divisions, the party selected its presidential candidates in a caucus of members of Congress. They included Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe, by 1824, the caucus system had practically collapsed. After 1800, the party dominated Congress and most state governments outside New England, by 1824, the party was split four ways and lacked a center, as the First Party System collapsed. The emergence of the Second Party System in the 1830s realigned the old factions, one remnant followed Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren into the new Democratic Party by 1828. Another remnant led by John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay formed the National Republicans in 1828, the precise date of founding is disputed, but 1791 is a reasonable estimate, some time by 1792 is certain. The elections of 1792 were the first ones to be contested on anything resembling a partisan basis, in most states the congressional elections were recognized, as Jefferson strategist John Beckley put it, as a struggle between the Treasury department and the republican interest

19.
Ann Gerry
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Ann Thompson Gerry was the wife of Vice-President Elbridge Gerry. She is regarded as the second Second Lady of the United States, following Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Aaron Burr, and George Clinton were widowers during their tenures as Vice-President. Ann Thompson was the daughter of James Thompson a wealthy Irishman who made his fortune in the merchant trade, thompsons business was by 1750 based in New York City, where Ann was born in 1763. She was educated in Dublin, Ireland, while her brothers were educated in Scotland. Upon completion of her education in the mid-1780s she returned to New York, there she caught the eye of Elbridge Gerry, a Marblehead, Massachusetts politician twenty years her elder who was serving in the Confederation Congress. Their romance was well underway by late 1785, and they were married on January 12,1786. The couple had ten children between 1787 and 1801 and her husband was frequently concerned over her health, but was also frequently away. She was thereafter supported by her children, living with her son, James Thompson Gerry, the commander of the USS Albany and she died in New Haven, Connecticut on March 17,1849. She was buried in New Havens Old Burying Ground

20.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website

21.
Harvard University
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Although never formally affiliated with any denomination, the early College primarily trained Congregationalist and Unitarian clergy. Its curriculum and student body were gradually secularized during the 18th century, james Bryant Conant led the university through the Great Depression and World War II and began to reform the curriculum and liberalize admissions after the war. The undergraduate college became coeducational after its 1977 merger with Radcliffe College, Harvards $34.5 billion financial endowment is the largest of any academic institution. Harvard is a large, highly residential research university, the nominal cost of attendance is high, but the Universitys large endowment allows it to offer generous financial aid packages. Harvards alumni include eight U. S. presidents, several heads of state,62 living billionaires,359 Rhodes Scholars. To date, some 130 Nobel laureates,18 Fields Medalists, Harvard was formed in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony. In 1638, it obtained British North Americas first known printing press, in 1639 it was named Harvard College after deceased clergyman John Harvard an alumnus of the University of Cambridge who had left the school £779 and his scholars library of some 400 volumes. The charter creating the Harvard Corporation was granted in 1650 and it offered a classic curriculum on the English university model‍—‌many leaders in the colony had attended the University of Cambridge‍—‌but conformed to the tenets of Puritanism. It was never affiliated with any denomination, but many of its earliest graduates went on to become clergymen in Congregational. The leading Boston divine Increase Mather served as president from 1685 to 1701, in 1708, John Leverett became the first president who was not also a clergyman, which marked a turning of the college toward intellectual independence from Puritanism. When the Hollis Professor of Divinity David Tappan died in 1803 and the president of Harvard Joseph Willard died a year later, in 1804, in 1846, the natural history lectures of Louis Agassiz were acclaimed both in New York and on the campus at Harvard College. Agassizs approach was distinctly idealist and posited Americans participation in the Divine Nature, agassizs perspective on science combined observation with intuition and the assumption that a person can grasp the divine plan in all phenomena. When it came to explaining life-forms, Agassiz resorted to matters of shape based on an archetype for his evidence. Charles W. Eliot, president 1869–1909, eliminated the position of Christianity from the curriculum while opening it to student self-direction. While Eliot was the most crucial figure in the secularization of American higher education, he was motivated not by a desire to secularize education, during the 20th century, Harvards international reputation grew as a burgeoning endowment and prominent professors expanded the universitys scope. Rapid enrollment growth continued as new schools were begun and the undergraduate College expanded. Radcliffe College, established in 1879 as sister school of Harvard College, Harvard became a founding member of the Association of American Universities in 1900. In the early 20th century, the student body was predominately old-stock, high-status Protestants, especially Episcopalians, Congregationalists, by the 1970s it was much more diversified

22.
Gerrymandering
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In the process of setting electoral districts, gerrymandering is a practice intended to establish a political advantage for a particular party or group by manipulating district boundaries. The resulting district is known as a gerrymander, however, that word can refer to the process. The term gerrymandering has negative connotations, two principal tactics are used in gerrymandering, cracking and packing. S. Federal voting district boundaries that produce a majority of constituents representative of African-American or other racial minorities, Gerrymandering can also be used to protect incumbents. Gerrymandering should not be confused with malapportionment, whereby the number of voters per elected representative can vary widely without relation to how the boundaries are drawn. Nevertheless, the suffix has been applied to particular malapportionments. Sometimes political representatives use both gerrymandering and malapportionment to try to maintain power, the word gerrymander was used for the first time in the Boston Gazette on 26 March 1812. The word was created in reaction to a redrawing of Massachusetts state senate election districts under Governor Elbridge Gerry, in 1812, Governor Gerry signed a bill that redistricted Massachusetts to benefit his Democratic-Republican Party. When mapped, one of the districts in the Boston area was said to resemble the shape of a mythological salamander. The original gerrymander, and original 1812 gerrymander cartoon, depict the Essex South state senatorial district for the legislature of The Commonwealth of Massachusetts, gerrymander is a portmanteau of the governors last name and the word salamander. The redistricting was a notable success, the author of the term gerrymander may never be definitively established. This cartoon was most likely drawn by Elkanah Tisdale, an early 19th-century painter, designer, Tisdale had the engraving skills to cut the woodblocks to print the original cartoon. These woodblocks survive and are preserved in the Library of Congress, the word gerrymander was reprinted numerous times in Federalist newspapers in Massachusetts, New England, and nationwide during the remainder of 1812. This suggests some organized activity of the Federalists to disparage Governor Gerry in particular, Gerrymandering soon began to be used to describe not only the original Massachusetts example, but also other cases of district shape manipulation for partisan gain in other states. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the acceptance was marked by its publication in a dictionary. Since the letter g of the eponymous Gerry is pronounced /ɡ/ as in go, however, pronunciation as /ˈdʒɛrimændər/, with a /dʒ/ as in gentle, has become the accepted pronunciation. From time to time, other names are given the suffix to tie a particular effort to a particular politician or group. These include the 1852 Henry-mandering, Jerrymander, Perrymander, and Tullymander, Gerrymandering is used most often in favor of ruling incumbents or a specific political party—the one drawing the map

23.
Voiced palato-alveolar affricate
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The voiced palato-alveolar sibilant affricate, voiced post-alveolar affricate or voiced domed postalveolar sibilant affricate, is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The sound is transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet with ⟨d͡ʒ⟩, or in broad transcription ⟨ɟ⟩, alternatives commonly used in linguistic works, particularly in older or American literature, are ⟨ǰ⟩, ⟨ǧ⟩, ⟨ǯ⟩, and ⟨dž⟩. It is familiar to English speakers as the pronunciation of ⟨j⟩ in jump, some scholars use the symbol /d͡ʒ/ to transcribe the laminal variant of the voiced retroflex affricate. In such cases, the voiceless palato-alveolar sibilant is transcribed /d͡ʒʲ/ and its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. It is a consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only. It is a consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue. The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm and its place of articulation is postalveolar, which means it is articulated with either the tip or the blade of the tongue behind the alveolar ridge. Its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation and it is an oral consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only. It is a consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue. The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, as in most sounds

24.
Voiced velar stop
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The voiced velar stop is a type of consonantal sound, used in some spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is ⟨ɡ⟩, strictly, the IPA symbol is the so-called single-story G, but the double-story G is considered an acceptable alternative. Features of the velar stop, Its manner of articulation is occlusive. Since the consonant is also oral, with no outlet, the airflow is blocked entirely. Its place of articulation is velar, which means it is articulated with the back of the tongue at the soft palate and its phonation is voiced, which means the vocal cords vibrate during the articulation. It is a consonant, which means air is allowed to escape through the mouth only. It is a consonant, which means it is produced by directing the airstream along the center of the tongue. The airstream mechanism is pulmonic, which means it is articulated by pushing air solely with the lungs and diaphragm, absent stop is an areal feature. Missing, on the hand, is widely scattered around the world. It seems that is more difficult to articulate than the other basic stops. This could have two effects, and might become confused, and the distinction is lost, or perhaps a never develops when a language first starts making voicing distinctions. With uvulars, where there is less space between the glottis and tongue for airflow, the imbalance is more extreme, Voiced is much rarer than voiceless. Many Indo-Aryan languages, such as Hindustani, have a two-way contrast between aspirated and plain

25.
American Revolutionary War
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From about 1765 the American Revolution had led to increasing philosophical and political differences between Great Britain and its American colonies. The war represented a culmination of these differences in armed conflict between Patriots and the authority which they increasingly resisted. This resistance became particularly widespread in the New England Colonies, especially in the Province of Massachusetts Bay. On December 16,1773, Massachusetts members of the Patriot group Sons of Liberty destroyed a shipment of tea in Boston Harbor in an event that became known as the Boston Tea Party. Named the Coercive Acts by Parliament, these became known as the Intolerable Acts in America. The Massachusetts colonists responded with the Suffolk Resolves, establishing a government that removed control of the province from the Crown outside of Boston. Twelve colonies formed a Continental Congress to coordinate their resistance, and established committees, British attempts to seize the munitions of Massachusetts colonists in April 1775 led to the first open combat between Crown forces and Massachusetts militia, the Battles of Lexington and Concord. Militia forces proceeded to besiege the British forces in Boston, forcing them to evacuate the city in March 1776, the Continental Congress appointed George Washington to take command of the militia. Concurrent to the Boston campaign, an American attempt to invade Quebec, on July 2,1776, the Continental Congress formally voted for independence, issuing its Declaration on July 4. Sir William Howe began a British counterattack, focussing on recapturing New York City, Howe outmaneuvered and defeated Washington, leaving American confidence at a low ebb. Washington captured a Hessian force at Trenton and drove the British out of New Jersey, in 1777 the British sent a new army under John Burgoyne to move south from Canada and to isolate the New England colonies. However, instead of assisting Burgoyne, Howe took his army on a campaign against the revolutionary capital of Philadelphia. Burgoyne outran his supplies, was surrounded and surrendered at Saratoga in October 1777, the British defeat in the Saratoga Campaign had drastic consequences. Giving up on the North, the British decided to salvage their former colonies in the South, British forces under Lieutenant-General Charles Cornwallis seized Georgia and South Carolina, capturing an American army at Charleston, South Carolina. British strategy depended upon an uprising of large numbers of armed Loyalists, in 1779 Spain joined the war as an ally of France under the Pacte de Famille, intending to capture Gibraltar and British colonies in the Caribbean. Britain declared war on the Dutch Republic in December 1780, in 1781, after the British and their allies had suffered two decisive defeats at Kings Mountain and Cowpens, Cornwallis retreated to Virginia, intending on evacuation. A decisive French naval victory in September deprived the British of an escape route, a joint Franco-American army led by Count Rochambeau and Washington, laid siege to the British forces at Yorktown. With no sign of relief and the situation untenable, Cornwallis surrendered in October 1781, Whigs in Britain had long opposed the pro-war Tory majority in Parliament, but the defeat at Yorktown gave the Whigs the upper hand

26.
Second Continental Congress
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The Second Continental Congress was a convention of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that started meeting in the spring of 1775, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It succeeded the First Continental Congress, which met between September 5,1774 and October 26,1774, also in Philadelphia, the second Congress managed the colonial war effort, and moved incrementally towards independence, adopting the United States Declaration of Independence on July 4,1776. When the Second Continental Congress came together on May 10,1775 it was, in effect, many of the same 56 delegates who attended the first meeting were in attendance at the second, and the delegates appointed the same president and secretary. Notable new arrivals included Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania and John Hancock of Massachusetts, within two weeks, Randolph was summoned back to Virginia to preside over the House of Burgesses, he was replaced in the Virginia delegation by Thomas Jefferson, who arrived several weeks later. Henry Middleton was elected as president to replace Randolph, but he declined, Hancock was elected president on May 24. Delegates from twelve of the Thirteen Colonies were present when the Second Continental Congress convened, Georgia had not participated in the First Continental Congress and did not initially send delegates to the Second Continental Congress. On May 13,1775, Lyman Hall was admitted as a delegate from the Parish of St. Johns in the Colony of Georgia, not as a delegate from the colony itself. The Second Continental Congress would meet on May 10,1775, by the time the Second Continental Congress met, the American Revolutionary War had already started with the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The Congress was to charge of the war effort. For the first few months of the struggle, the Patriots had carried on their struggle in an ad-hoc and they had seized arsenals, driven out royal officials, and besieged the British army in the city of Boston. On July 6,1775 Congress approved a Declaration of Causes outlining the rationale, on July 8, Congress extended the Olive Branch Petition to the British Crown as a final attempt at reconciliation. However, it was received too late to do any good, silas Deane was sent to France as a minister of the Congress. American ports were reopened in defiance of the British Navigation Acts, the Congress had no authority to levy taxes, and was required to request money, supplies, and troops from the states to support the war effort. Individual states frequently ignored these requests, Congress was moving towards declaring independence from the British Empire in 1776, but many delegates lacked the authority from their home governments to take such a drastic action. Advocates of independence in Congress moved to have reluctant colonial governments revise instructions to their delegations, on May 10,1776, Congress passed a resolution recommending that any colony lacking a proper government should form such. The resolution of independence was delayed for weeks as revolutionaries consolidated support for independence in their home governments. The records of the Continental Congress confirm that the need for a declaration of independence was intimately linked with the demands of international relations, on June 7,1776, Richard Henry Lee offered a resolution before the Continental Congress declaring the colonies independent. He also urged Congress to resolve to take the most effectual measures for forming foreign Alliances, Lee argued that independence was the only way to ensure a foreign alliance, since no European monarchs would deal with America if they remained Britains colonies

27.
United States Declaration of Independence
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Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was passed on July 2 with no opposing vote cast, a committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term Declaration of Independence is not used in the document itself, John Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress would edit to produce the final version. The next day, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail, The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, but Independence Day is actually celebrated on July 4, the date that the Declaration of Independence was approved. After ratifying the text on July 4, Congress issued the Declaration of Independence in several forms and it was initially published as the printed Dunlap broadside that was widely distributed and read to the public. The source copy used for printing has been lost. Jeffersons original draft, complete with changes made by John Adams and Benjamin Franklin, the best known version of the Declaration, a signed copy that is popularly regarded as the official document, is displayed at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. This engrossed copy was ordered by Congress on July 19, the sources and interpretation of the Declaration have been the subject of much scholarly inquiry. Having served its purpose in announcing independence, references to the text of the Declaration were few in the following years. Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his rhetoric, and his policies and this has been called one of the best-known sentences in the English language, containing the most potent and consequential words in American history. The passage came to represent a standard to which the United States should strive. Believe me, dear Sir, there is not in the British empire a man who more cordially loves a union with Great Britain than I do. But, by the God that made me, I will cease to exist before I yield to a connection on such terms as the British Parliament propose, and in this, I think I speak the sentiments of America. By the time that the Declaration of Independence was adopted in July 1776, relations had been deteriorating between the colonies and the mother country since 1763. Parliament enacted a series of measures to increase revenue from the colonies, such as the Stamp Act of 1765, Parliament believed that these acts were a legitimate means of having the colonies pay their fair share of the costs to keep them in the British Empire. Many colonists, however, had developed a different conception of the empire, the colonies were not directly represented in Parliament, and colonists argued that Parliament had no right to levy taxes upon them. This tax dispute was part of a divergence between British and American interpretations of the British Constitution and the extent of Parliaments authority in the colonies. In the colonies, however, the idea had developed that the British Constitution recognized certain fundamental rights that no government could violate, after the Townshend Acts, some essayists even began to question whether Parliament had any legitimate jurisdiction in the colonies at all

28.
Articles of Confederation
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Its drafting by a committee appointed by the Second Continental Congress began on July 12,1776, and an approved version was sent to the states for ratification on November 15,1777. The Articles of Confederation came into force on March 1,1781, a guiding principle of the Articles was to preserve the independence and sovereignty of the states. The federal government received only those powers which the colonies had recognized as belonging to king, the Articles formed a war-time confederation of states, with an extremely limited central government. Actually the adoption of the Articles made no change in the federal government. That body was now taken over as the Congress of the Confederation, as the governments weaknesses became apparent, especially after Shays Rebellion, individuals began asking for changes to the Articles. Their hope was to create a national government. Initially, some states met to deal with their trade and economic problems, however, as more states became interested in meeting to change the Articles, a meeting was set in Philadelphia on May 25,1787. It was quickly realized that changes would not work, and instead the entire Articles needed to be replaced, on March 4,1789, the general government under the Articles was replaced with the federal government under the Constitution. The new Constitution provided for a stronger federal government by establishing a chief executive, courts. The Articles of Confederation would bear some resemblance to it, over the next two decades, some of the basic concepts it addressed would strengthen and others would weaken, particularly the degree of deserved loyalty to the crown. It was an era of constitution writing—most states were busy at the task—and leaders felt the new nation must have a written constitution, during the war, Congress exercised an unprecedented level of political, diplomatic, military and economic authority. It adopted trade restrictions, established and maintained an army, issued fiat money, created a military code, to transform themselves from outlaws into a legitimate nation, the colonists needed international recognition for their cause and foreign allies to support it. The monarchies of France and Spain in particular could not be expected to aid those they considered rebels against another legitimate monarch, foreign courts needed to have American grievances laid before them persuasively in a “manifesto” which could also reassure them that the Americans would be reliable trading partners. Without such a declaration, Paine concluded, “he custom of all courts is against us, Congress then created three overlapping committees to draft the Declaration, a Model Treaty, and the Articles of Confederation. The committee met repeatedly, and chairman John Dickinson presented their results to the Congress on July 12,1776, there were long debates on such issues as sovereignty, the exact powers to be given the confederate government, whether to have a judiciary, and voting procedures. Under the Articles, the states retained sovereignty over all governmental functions not specifically relinquished to the national government, the individual articles set the rules for current and future operations of the United States government. Article XIII stipulated that their provisions shall be observed by every state. John Dickinsons and Benjamin Franklins handwritten drafts of the Articles of Confederation are housed at the National Archives in Washington, after the war, nationalists, especially those who had been active in the Continental Army, complained that the Articles were too weak for an effective government

29.
Constitutional Convention (United States)
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The Constitutional Convention took place from May 25 to September 17,1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The delegates elected George Washington to preside over the Convention, the result of the Convention was the creation of the United States Constitution, placing the Convention among the most significant events in the history of the United States. Most of the time during the Convention was spent on deciding these issues, while the powers of legislature, executive, once the Convention began, the delegates first agreed on the principles of the Convention, then they agreed on Madisons Virginia Plan and began to modify it. A Committee of Detail assembled during the July 4 recess eventually produced a draft of the constitution. Most of the draft remained in place, and can be found in the final version of the constitution. After the final issues were resolved, the Committee on Style produced the final version, before the Constitution was drafted, the nearly 4 million inhabitants of the 13 newly independent states were governed under the Articles of Confederation, created by the Second Continental Congress. It soon became evident to all that the chronically underfunded Confederation government. As the Articles of Confederation could only be amended by unanimous vote of the states, in addition, the Articles gave the weak federal government no taxing power, it was wholly dependent on the states for its money, and had no power to force delinquent states to pay. Once the immediate task of winning the American Revolutionary War had passed, the states began to look to their own interests, another impetus for the convention was Shays Rebellion. A political conflict between Boston merchants and rural farmers over issues such as property seizures for tax debts had broken out into an open rebellion. This rebellion was led by a former Revolutionary War captain, Daniel Shays, himself a farmer with tax debts. The rebellion took months for Massachusetts to put down completely, in September 1786, at the Annapolis Convention, delegates from five states called for a Constitutional Convention in order to discuss possible improvements to the Articles of Confederation. The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia on May 14,1787, Rhode Island, fearing that the Convention would work to its disadvantage, boycotted the Convention and, when the Constitution was put to the states, initially refused to ratify it. James Madison arrived first, and soon most of the Virginia delegation arrived, while waiting for the other delegates, the Virginia delegation produced the Virginia Plan, which was designed and written by James Madison. On May 25, the delegations convened in the Pennsylvania State House, George Washington was unanimously elected president of the Convention, and it was agreed that the discussions and votes would be kept secret until the conclusion of the meeting. Although William Jackson was elected as secretary, his records were brief, Madisons Notes of Debates in the Federal Convention of 1787, supplemented by the notes of Robert Yates, remain the most complete record of the Convention. Throughout the debate, delegates constantly referred to precedents from history in support of their position, most commonly, they referred to the history of England, in particular the Glorious Revolution, classical history, and recent precedents from Holland and Germany. Outside the Convention in Philadelphia, there was a convening of the Society of the Cincinnati

30.
United States Constitution
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The United States Constitution is the supreme law of the United States of America. The Constitution, originally comprising seven articles, delineates the national frame of government, Articles Four, Five and Six entrench concepts of federalism, describing the rights and responsibilities of state governments and of the states in relationship to the federal government. Article Seven establishes the procedure used by the thirteen States to ratify it. In general, the first ten amendments, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, offer specific protections of individual liberty, the majority of the seventeen later amendments expand individual civil rights protections. Others address issues related to federal authority or modify government processes and procedures, Amendments to the United States Constitution, unlike ones made to many constitutions worldwide, are appended to the document. All four pages of the original U. S, according to the United States Senate, The Constitutions first three words—We the People—affirm that the government of the United States exists to serve its citizens. From September 5,1774 to March 1,1781, the Continental Congress functioned as the government of the United States. The process of selecting the delegates for the First and Second Continental Congresses underscores the revolutionary role of the people of the colonies in establishing a governing body. The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union was the first constitution of the United States and it was drafted by the Second Continental Congress from mid-1776 through late-1777, and ratification by all 13 states was completed by early 1781. Under the Articles of Confederation, the governments power was quite limited. The Confederation Congress could make decisions, but lacked enforcement powers, implementation of most decisions, including modifications to the Articles, required unanimous approval of all thirteen state legislatures. The Continental Congress could print money but the currency was worthless, Congress could borrow money, but couldnt pay it back. No state paid all their U. S. taxes, some paid nothing, some few paid an amount equal to interest on the national debt owed to their citizens, but no more. No interest was paid on debt owed foreign governments, by 1786, the United States would default on outstanding debts as their dates came due. Internationally, the Articles of Confederation did little to enhance the United States ability to defend its sovereignty, most of the troops in the 625-man United States Army were deployed facing – but not threatening – British forts on American soil. They had not been paid, some were deserting and others threatening mutiny, spain closed New Orleans to American commerce, U. S. officials protested, but to no effect. Barbary pirates began seizing American ships of commerce, the Treasury had no funds to pay their ransom, if any military crisis required action, the Congress had no credit or taxing power to finance a response. Domestically, the Articles of Confederation was failing to bring unity to the sentiments and interests of the various states

31.
United States Bill of Rights
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The Bill of Rights is the first ten amendments to the United States Constitution. Proposed following the oftentimes bitter 1787–88 battle over ratification of the U. S, on June 8,1789, Representative James Madison introduced nine amendments to the constitution in the House of Representatives. Among his recommendations Madison proposed opening up the Constitution and inserting specific rights limiting the power of Congress in Article One, Seven of these limitations would become part of the ten ratified Bill of Rights amendments. Contrary to Madisons original proposal that the articles be incorporated into the body of the Constitution. Articles Three through Twelve were ratified as additions to the Constitution on December 15,1791, Article Two became part of the Constitution on May 5,1992, as the Twenty-seventh Amendment. Article One is technically still pending before the states, the door for their application upon state governments was opened in the 1860s, following ratification of the Fourteenth Amendment. Since the early 20th century both federal and state courts have used the Fourteenth Amendment to apply portions of the Bill of Rights to state, the process is known as incorporation. There are several original engrossed copies of the Bill of Rights still in existence, One of these is on permanent public display at the National Archives in Washington, D. C. However, the government that operated under the Articles of Confederation was too weak to adequately regulate the various conflicts that arose between the states. The Philadelphia Convention set out to correct weaknesses of the Articles that had been apparent even before the American Revolutionary War had been successfully concluded, the convention took place from May 14 to September 17,1787, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The convention convened in the Pennsylvania State House, and George Washington of Virginia was unanimously elected as president of the convention, the 55 delegates who drafted the Constitution are among the men known as the Founding Fathers of the new nation. Thomas Jefferson, who was Minister to France during the convention, Rhode Island refused to send delegates to the convention. However, the motion was defeated by a vote of the state delegations after only a brief discussion. Madison, then an opponent of a Bill of Rights, later explained the vote by calling the bills of rights parchment barriers that offered only an illusion of protection against tyranny. The quick rejection of this motion, however, later endangered the entire ratification process, thirty-nine delegates signed the finalized Constitution. Thirteen delegates left before it was completed, and three who remained at the convention until the end refused to sign it, Mason, Gerry, elbridge Gerry wrote the most popular Anti-Federalist tract, Hon. Mr. Gerrys Objections, which went through 46 printings, the essay particularly focused on the lack of a bill of rights in the proposed constitution, many were concerned that a strong national government was a threat to individual rights and that the president would become a king. Jefferson wrote to Madison advocating a Bill of Rights, Half a loaf is better than no bread, if we cannot secure all our rights, let us secure what we can

32.
United States Congress
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The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States consisting of two chambers, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the Capitol in Washington, D. C, both senators and representatives are chosen through direct election, though vacancies in the Senate may be filled by a gubernatorial appointment. Members are usually affiliated to the Republican Party or to the Democratic Party, Congress has 535 voting members,435 Representatives and 100 Senators. The House of Representatives has six non-voting members in addition to its 435 voting members and these members can, however, sit on congressional committees and introduce legislation. Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, the members of the House of Representatives serve two-year terms representing the people of a single constituency, known as a district. Congressional districts are apportioned to states by using the United States Census results. Each state, regardless of population or size, has two senators, currently, there are 100 senators representing the 50 states. Each senator is elected at-large in their state for a term, with terms staggered. The House and Senate are equal partners in the legislative process—legislation cannot be enacted without the consent of both chambers, however, the Constitution grants each chamber some unique powers. The Senate ratifies treaties and approves presidential appointments while the House initiates revenue-raising bills, the House initiates impeachment cases, while the Senate decides impeachment cases. A two-thirds vote of the Senate is required before a person can be forcibly removed from office. The term Congress can also refer to a meeting of the legislature. A Congress covers two years, the current one, the 115th Congress, began on January 3,2017, the Congress starts and ends on the third day of January of every odd-numbered year. Members of the Senate are referred to as senators, members of the House of Representatives are referred to as representatives, congressmen, or congresswomen. One analyst argues that it is not a solely reactive institution but has played a role in shaping government policy and is extraordinarily sensitive to public pressure. Several academics described Congress, Congress reflects us in all our strengths, Congress is the governments most representative body. Congress is essentially charged with reconciling our many points of view on the public policy issues of the day. —Smith, Roberts, and Wielen Congress is constantly changing and is constantly in flux, most incumbents seek re-election, and their historical likelihood of winning subsequent elections exceeds 90 percent

33.
Political party
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A political party is a group of people who come together to contest elections and hold power in the government. The party agrees on some proposed policies and programmes, with a view to promoting the good or furthering their supporters interests. While there is some international commonality in the way political parties are recognized, and in how they operate, there are many differences. Many political parties have a core, but some do not. In many democracies, political parties are elected by the electorate to run a government, many countries, such as Germany and India, have several significant political parties, and some nations have one-party systems, such as China and Cuba. The United States is in practice a two-party system, but with smaller parties also participating. Its two most important parties are the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, the first political factions, cohering around a basic, if fluid, set of principles, emerged from the Exclusion Crisis and Glorious Revolution in late 17th century England. The leader of the Whigs was Robert Walpole, who maintained control of the government in the period 1721–1742, as the century wore on, the factions slowly began to adopt more coherent political tendencies as the interests of their power bases began to diverge. The Whig partys initial base of support from the aristocratic families widened to include the emerging industrial interests. A major influence on the Whigs were the political ideas of John Locke. They acted as a united, though unavailing, opposition to Whig corruption and they finally regained power with the accession of George III in 1760 under Lord Bute. Out of this chaos, the first distinctive parties emerged, the first such party was the Rockingham Whigs under the leadership of Charles Watson-Wentworth and the intellectual guidance of the political philosopher Edmund Burke. A coalition including the Rockingham Whigs, led by the Earl of Shelburne, took power in 1782, the new government, led by the radical politician Charles James Fox in coalition with Lord North, was soon brought down and replaced by William Pitt the Younger in 1783. It was now that a genuine two-party system began to emerge, by the time of this split the Whig party was increasingly influenced by the ideas of Adam Smith, founder of classical liberalism. As Wilson and Reill note, Adam Smiths theory melded nicely with the political stance of the Whig Party. The modern Conservative Party was created out of the Pittite Tories of the early 19th century, in the late 1820s disputes over political reform broke up this grouping. A government led by the Duke of Wellington collapsed amidst dire election results, following this disaster Robert Peel set about assembling a new coalition of forces. However, a consensus reached on these issues ended party politics in 1816 for a decade, Party politics revived in 1829 with the split of the Democratic-Republican Party into the Jacksonian Democrats led by Andrew Jackson, and the Whig Party, led by Henry Clay

34.
Federalist Party
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The Federalist Party was the first American political party. It existed from the early 1790s to 1816, its remnants lasted into the 1820s, the Federalists called for a strong national government that promoted economic growth and fostered friendly relationships with Great Britain, as well as opposition to revolutionary France. The party controlled the government until 1801, when it was overwhelmed by the Democratic-Republican opposition led by Thomas Jefferson. The Federalist Party came into being between 1792 and 1794 as a coalition of bankers and businessmen in support of Alexander Hamiltons fiscal policies. These supporters developed into the organized Federalist Party, which was committed to a fiscally sound, the only Federalist president was John Adams, although George Washington was broadly sympathetic to the Federalist program, he remained officially non-partisan during his entire presidency. Federalist policies called for a bank, tariffs, and good relations with Great Britain as expressed in the Jay Treaty negotiated in 1794. Hamilton developed the concept of implied powers and successfully argued the adoption of that interpretation of the United States Constitution, the Jay Treaty passed, and the Federalists won most of the major legislative battles in the 1790s. They held a strong base in the cities and in New England. After the Democratic-Republicans, whose base was in the rural South, won the election of 1800. They recovered some strength by their opposition to the War of 1812. On taking office in 1789, President Washington nominated New York lawyer Alexander Hamilton to the office of Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton wanted a strong national government with financial credibility. James Madison was Hamiltons ally in the fight to ratify the new Constitution, Political parties had not been anticipated when the Constitution was drafted in 1787 and ratified in 1788, even though both Hamilton and Madison played major roles. Parties were considered to be divisive and harmful to republicanism, No similar parties existed anywhere in the world. By 1790 Hamilton started building a nationwide coalition and his attempts to manage politics in the national capital to get his plans through Congress, then, brought strong responses across the country. In the process, what began as a capital faction soon assumed status as a faction and then, finally. The Federalist Party supported Hamiltons vision of a centralized government. In foreign affairs, they supported neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain, the majority of the Founding Fathers were originally Federalists. Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and many others can all be considered Federalists and these Federalists felt that the Articles of Confederation had been too weak to sustain a working government and had decided that a new form of government was needed

35.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks

36.
XYZ Affair
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The name derives from the substitution of the letters X, Y and Z for the names of French diplomats Hottinguer, Bellamy, and Hauteval in documents released by the Adams administration. An American diplomatic commission was sent to France in July 1797 to negotiate problems that were threatening to break out into war. Although such demands were not uncommon in mainland European diplomacy of the time, the Americans were offended by them, Gerry, seeking to avoid all-out war, remained for several months after the other two commissioners left. His exchanges with Talleyrand laid groundwork for the end to diplomatic. The failure of the caused an political firestorm in the United States when the commissions dispatches were published. It led to the undeclared Quasi-War, Federalists who controlled the government took advantage of the national anger to build up the nations military. They also attacked the Jeffersonian Republicans for their stance. In the wake of the 1789 French Revolution, relations between the new French Republic and the American administration of President George Washington became strained, in 1792, France and the rest of Europe went to war, a conflict in which Washington declared American neutrality. However, both France and Great Britain, the naval powers in the war, seized ships of neutral powers that traded with their enemies. With the Jay Treaty, ratified in 1795, the United States reached an agreement on the matter with Britain that angered members of the Directory that governed France, the French Navy consequently stepped up its efforts to interdict American trade with Britain. By the time John Adams assumed the presidency in early 1797, Jefferson looked at the Federalists as monarchists who were linked to Britain and therefore hostile to American values. In late May 1797 Adams cabinet met to discuss French relations, Adams initially proposed that John Marshall and Elbridge Gerry join Pinckney on the commission, but his cabinet objected to the choice of Gerry because he was not a strong Federalist. Congress approved this choice of commissioners, and Adams instructed them to similar terms to those that had been granted to Britain in the Jay Treaty. The commissioners were instructed to refuse loans, but to be flexible in the arrangement of payment terms for financial matters. Marshall left for Europe in mid-July to join Pinckney, with Gerry following a few weeks later, the Directory was undergoing both internal power struggles and struggles with the Council of Five Hundred, the lower chamber of the legislature. Ministerial changes took place in the first half of 1797, including the selection in July of Charles Maurice de Talleyrand as foreign minister. Talleyrand, who had spent a few years in the United States, was openly concerned about the establishment of closer ties between the U. S. and Britain. The Directory, generally not well-disposed to American interests, became more hostile to them in September 1797

37.
Harvard College
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Harvard College is the undergraduate liberal arts college of Harvard University. Founded in 1636 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest institution of learning in the United States. The school came into existence in 1636 by vote of the Great and General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony—though without a single building, in 1638, the college became home for North Americas first known printing press, carried by the ship John of London. Three years later, the college was renamed in honor of deceased Charlestown minister John Harvard who had bequeathed to the school his entire library, Harvards first instructor was schoolmaster Nathaniel Eaton, in 1639, he also became its first instructor to be dismissed, for overstrict discipline. The schools first students were graduated in 1642, in 1665, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck from the Wampanoag … did graduate from Harvard, the first Indian to do so in the colonial period. The colleges of Englands Oxford and Cambridge Universities are communities within the university, each an association of scholars sharing room. The Indian College was active from 1640 to no later than 1693, the body known as The President and Fellows of Harvard College retains its traditional name despite having governance of the entire University. Radcliffe College originally paid Harvard faculty to repeat their lectures for women students, since the 1970s, Harvard has been responsible for undergraduate governance matters for women, women were still formally admitted to and graduated from Radcliffe until a final merger in 1999. About 2,000 students are admitted each year, representing between five and ten percent of those applying, of those admitted, approximately three-quarters choose to attend and these figures make Harvard perhaps the most selective and sought-after college in the world. Midway through the year, most undergraduates join one of fifty standard fields of concentration. Joint concentrations and special concentrations are also possible, a smaller number receive the Scientiarum Baccalaureus. There are also special programs, such as a five-year program leading to both a Harvard undergraduate degree and a Master of Arts from the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2012, dozens of students were disciplined for cheating on an exam in one course. The university instituted a code beginning in the fall of 2015. The total annual cost of attendance, including tuition and room and board, under financial aid guidelines adopted in 2012, families with incomes below $65,000 no longer pay anything for their children to attend, including room and board. Families with incomes between $65,000 to $150,000 pay no more than 10% of their annual income, grants total 88% of Harvards aid for undergraduate students, with aid also provided by loans and work-study. Each house is presided over by a senior-faculty Faculty Dean, while its Allston Burr Resident Dean supervises undergraduates day-to-day academic, many tutors reside in the House, as do the Faculty Dean and Resident Dean. The way in which students come to live in particular Houses has changed greatly over time, under the original draft system, Masters negotiated privately over the assignment of rising sophomores considered most—or least—promising

38.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth

39.
West Indies
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Indigenous peoples were the first inhabitants of the West Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus became the first European to arrive at the islands, after the first of the voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas, Europeans began to use the term West Indies to distinguish the region from the East Indies of South Asia and Southeast Asia. In the late century, French, English and Dutch merchants and privateers began their operations in the Caribbean Sea, attacking Spanish and Portuguese shipping. These African slaves wrought a demographic revolution, replacing or joining with either the indigenous Caribs or the European settlers who were there as indentured servants. The Dutch, allied with the Caribs of the Orinoco would eventually carry the struggles deep into South America, first along the Orinoco and these interconnected commercial and diplomatic relations made up the Western Caribbean Zone which was in place in the early eighteenth century. In 1916, Denmark sold the Danish West Indies to the United States for US$25 million in gold, the Danish West Indies became an insular area of the US, called the United States Virgin Islands. Between 1958 and 1962, the United Kingdom re-organised all their West Indies island territories into the West Indies Federation and they hoped that the Federation would coalesce into a single, independent nation. West Indian is the term used by the U. S. government to refer to people of the West Indies. Tulane University professor Rosanne Adderly says he phrase West Indies distinguished the territories encountered by Columbus, … The term West Indies was eventually used by all European nations to describe their own acquired territories in the Americas. Despite the collapse of the Federation … the West Indies continues to field a joint cricket team for international competition, the West Indies cricket team includes participants from Guyana, which is geographically located in South America. More than Slaves and Sugar, Recent Historiography of the Trans-imperial Caribbean, a Concise History of the Caribbean. Martin, Tony, Caribbean History, From Pre-colonial Origins to the Present

40.
Parliament of Great Britain
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The Parliament of Great Britain was formed in 1707 following the ratification of the Acts of Union by both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland. This lasted nearly a century, until the Acts of Union 1800 merged the separate British and Irish Parliaments into a single Parliament of the United Kingdom with effect from 1 January 1801. Following the Treaty of Union in 1706, Acts of Union ratifying the Treaty were passed in both the Parliament of England and the Parliament of Scotland, which created a new Kingdom of Great Britain. The Acts dissolved both parliaments, replacing them with a new parliament, referred to as the Parliament of Great Britain and it was not even considered necessary to hold a new general election. While Scots law and Scottish legislation remained separate, new legislation was thereafter to be enacted by the new parliament, after the Hanoverian King George I ascended the British throne in 1714 through the Act of Settlement of 1701, real power continued to shift away from the monarchy. George was a German ruler, spoke poor English, and remained interested in governing his dominions in continental Europe rather than in Britain. Reformers and Radicals sought parliamentary reform, but as the French Revolutionary Wars developed the British government became repressive against dissent and progress towards reform was stalled. During the first half of George IIIs reign, the still had considerable influence over Parliament. Most candidates for the House of Commons were identified as Whigs or Tories, reformers like William Beckford and Radicals beginning with John Wilkes called for reform of the system. In 1780 a draft programme of reform was drawn up by Charles James Fox and Thomas Brand Hollis and this included calls for the six points later adopted by the Chartists. Pitt had previously called for Parliament to begin to reform itself, proposals Pitt made in April 1785 to redistribute seats from the rotten boroughs to London and the counties were defeated in the House of Commons by 248 votes to 174

41.
French and Indian War
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The French and Indian War comprised the North American theater of the worldwide Seven Years War of 1754–1763. At the start of the war, the French North American colonies had a population of roughly 60,000 European settlers, the outnumbered French particularly depended on the Indians. Following months of localised conflict, the nations declared war on each other in 1756. The name French and Indian War, used mainly in the United States, British and European historians use the term the Seven Years War, as do English speaking Canadians. French Canadians call it La guerre de la Conquête or the Fourth Intercolonial War, fighting took place primarily along the frontiers between New France and the British colonies, from Virginia in the south to Newfoundland in the north. It began with a dispute over control of the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers, called the Forks of the Ohio, and the site of the French Fort Duquesne. The dispute erupted into violence in the Battle of Jumonville Glen in May 1754, in 1755, six colonial governors in North America met with General Edward Braddock, the newly arrived British Army commander, and planned a four-way attack on the French. None succeeded, and the effort by Braddock proved a disaster, he lost the Battle of the Monongahela on July 9,1755. In 1755, the British captured Fort Beauséjour on the border separating Nova Scotia from Acadia, orders for the deportation were given by William Shirley, Commander-in-Chief, North America, without direction from Great Britain. The Acadians, both captured in arms and those who had sworn the loyalty oath to His Britannic Majesty, were expelled. Native Americans were likewise driven off their land to make way for settlers from New England, after the disastrous 1757 British campaigns, the British government fell. France concentrated its forces against Prussia and its allies in the European theatre of the war, between 1758 and 1760, the British military launched a campaign to capture the Colony of Canada. They succeeded in capturing territory in surrounding colonies and ultimately the city of Quebec, though the British later lost the Battle of Sainte-Foy west of Quebec, the French ceded Canada in accordance with the Treaty of Paris. The outcome was one of the most significant developments in a century of Anglo-French conflict, France ceded its territory east of the Mississippi to Great Britain. It ceded French Louisiana west of the Mississippi River to its ally Spain, in compensation for Spains loss to Britain of Florida. Frances colonial presence north of the Caribbean was reduced to the islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon, the conflict is known by multiple names. In British America, wars were often named after the sitting British monarch, such as King Williams War or Queen Annes War. As there had already been a King Georges War in the 1740s, British colonists named the war in King Georges reign after their opponents

42.
Samuel Adams
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Samuel Adams was an American statesman, political philosopher, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He was a cousin to fellow Founding Father, President John Adams. Adams was born in Boston, brought up in a religious, a graduate of Harvard College, he was an unsuccessful businessman and tax collector before concentrating on politics. His 1768 Massachusetts Circular Letter calling for colonial non-cooperation prompted the occupation of Boston by British soldiers, continued resistance to British policy resulted in the 1773 Boston Tea Party and the coming of the American Revolution. Parliament passed the Coercive Acts in 1774, at which time Adams attended the Continental Congress in Philadelphia which was convened to coordinate a colonial response, Adams returned to Massachusetts after the American Revolution, where he served in the state senate and was eventually elected governor. Samuel Adams later became a figure in American history. Accounts written in the 19th century praised him as someone who had been steering his fellow colonists towards independence long before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. This view gave way to negative assessments of Adams in the first half of the 20th century, both of these interpretations have been challenged by some modern scholars, who argue that these traditional depictions of Adams are myths contradicted by the historical record. Samuel Adams was born in Boston in the British colony of Massachusetts on September 16,1722, an Old Style date that is sometimes converted to the New Style date of September 27. Adams was one of children born to Samuel Adams, Sr. and Mary Adams in an age of high infant mortality. Adamss parents were devout Puritans and members of the Old South Congregational Church, the family lived on Purchase Street in Boston. Adams was proud of his Puritan heritage, and emphasized Puritan values in his political career, Samuel Adams, Sr. was a prosperous merchant and church deacon. Deacon Adams became a figure in Boston politics through an organization that became known as the Boston Caucus. The Boston Caucus helped shape the agenda of the Boston Town Meeting, Deacon Adams rose through the political ranks, becoming a justice of the peace, a selectman, and a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives. In the coming years, members of the party became known as Whigs or Patriots. The younger Samuel Adams attended Boston Latin School and then entered Harvard College in 1736 and his parents hoped that his schooling would prepare him for the ministry, but Adams gradually shifted his interest to politics. After graduating in 1740, Adams continued his studies, earning a degree in 1743. Adamss life was affected by his fathers involvement in a banking controversy

43.
John Adams
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John Adams was an American patriot who served as the second President of the United States and the first Vice President. He was a lawyer, diplomat, statesman, political theorist, and, as a Founding Father and he was also a dedicated diarist and correspondent, particularly with his wife and closest advisor Abigail. He collaborated with his cousin, revolutionary leader Samuel Adams, Adams was a delegate from Massachusetts to the Continental Congress, where he played a leading role in persuading Congress to declare independence. He assisted Thomas Jefferson in drafting the Declaration of Independence in 1776, as a diplomat in Europe, he helped negotiate the eventual peace treaty with Great Britain, and acquired vital governmental loans from Amsterdam bankers. Adams was the author of the Massachusetts Constitution in 1780 which influenced American political theory. Adamss credentials as a revolutionary secured for him two terms as President George Washingtons vice president and also his own election in 1796 as the second president. In his single term as president, he encountered fierce criticism from the Jeffersonian Republicans, as well as the dominant faction in his own Federalist Party, led by his rival Alexander Hamilton. Adams signed the controversial Alien and Sedition Acts, and built up the army, the major accomplishment of his presidency was a peaceful resolution of the conflict in the face of Hamiltons opposition. Due to his strong posture on defense, Adams is often called the father of the American Navy and he was the first U. S. president to reside in the executive mansion, now known as the White House. In 1800, Adams lost re-election to Thomas Jefferson and retired to Massachusetts and he eventually resumed his friendship with Jefferson upon the latters own retirement by initiating a correspondence which lasted fourteen years. He and his wife established a family of politicians, diplomats, Adams was the father of John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States. He died on the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Modern historians in the aggregate have favorably ranked his administration, John Adams was born on October 30,1735 to John Adams Sr. and Susanna Boylston. He had two brothers, Peter and Elihu. Adams birthplace was then in Braintree, Massachusetts, and is preserved at Adams National Historical Park, Adams mother was from a leading medical family of present-day Brookline, Massachusetts. His father was a Congregationalist deacon, a farmer, a cordwainer, the Deacon also served as a selectman and supervised the building of schools and roads. Adams often praised his father and recalled their close relationship, though raised in modest surroundings, Adams felt an acute responsibility to live up to his familys heritage of reverence. Journalist Richard Brookhiser wrote that Adams Puritan ancestors believed they lived in the Bible, England under the Stuarts was Egypt, they were Israel fleeing

44.
Mercy Otis Warren
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Mercy Otis Warren was a political writer and propagandist of the American Revolution. In the eighteenth century, topics such as politics and war were thought to be the province of men, few men and fewer women had the education or training to write about these subjects. Observations was long thought to be the work of other writers and it was not until her descendant, Charles Warren, found a reference to it in a 1787 letter to British historian, Catharine Macaulay, that Warren was accredited authorship. In 1790, she published a collection of poems and plays under her own name, Mercy Otis Warren was born on September 14,1727, the third of thirteen children and first daughter of Colonel James Otis and Mary Allyne Otis. The family lived in West Barnstable, Massachusetts, Mary Allyne was a descendant of Mayflower passenger Edward Doty. James Otis, Sr. was a farmer, and attorney and he won election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1745. He was an opponent and leader against British rule and against the appointed colonial governor. The Otis children were raised in the midst of revolutionary ideals, although Mercy had no formal education, she studied with the Reverend Jonathan Russell while he tutored her brothers Joseph and James in preparation for College. Unlike most girls of the time who were literate, Warren wanted to learn as much as she possibly could. She devoured book after book, learning about history and language and this set her apart from other girls, and most likely paved the way for her to break the traditional gender roles of her time. Her father also had unconventional views of his daughters education, as he supported her endeavors. James Otis attended Harvard College and became a patriot and lawyer. What little of his correspondence with Mercy survives suggests that James encouraged Mercys academic and literary efforts, treating her as an intellectual equal and she married James Warren on November 14,1754. After settling in Plymouth, James inherited his fathers position as sheriff and his previous occupations included farming and merchanting. Throughout their lives, they wrote letters of respect and admiration to each other and these exchanges of adoration showed both a mutual respect and an enduring bond between the two. James would write from Boston, “I have read one Excellent Sermon this day & heard two others and they had five sons, James, Winslow, Charles, Henry, and George. Her husband James had a political career. In 1765 he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives and he became speaker of the House and President of the Massachusetts Provincial Congress

Though prominent as a Missouri Senator, Harry Truman had been vice president only three months when he became president; he was never informed of Franklin Roosevelt's war or postwar policies while vice president.

The Congressional Cemetery or Washington Parish Burial Ground is a historic and active cemetery located at 1801 E …

Image: Liz and Mary Hall CC

Architectural drawing of Vice President George Clinton's monument by Benjamin Latrobe, 1812. Clinton was later reinterred in New York. The monuments to the right are in the form of the Latrobe cenotaphs.

James Madison, primary author and chief advocate for the Bill of Rights in the First Congress.

George Washington's 1788 letter to the Marquis de Lafayette observed, "the Convention of Massachusetts adopted the Constitution in toto; but recommended a number of specific alterations and quieting explanations." Source: Library of Congress